**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flphate1120pnnov20,0,2790895,print.story
Florida hate crimes fall to lowest level since '98; Palm Beach County instate's top five
Report: Palm Beach County in top five statewide
By Akilah Johnson
November 20, 2007
At a time when national civil rights leaders are calling for a renewedfederal focus on hate crimes, Florida reported the lowest level in nearly adecade, according to a report released Monday by the state AttorneyGeneral's Office.
Broward County had the most incidents statewide, however, with 50 crimesmotivated by hatred of the victims' race, religion, sexual orientation rethnicity/national origin. Palm Beach County, with 15, was in the top fivestatewide.
According to the report, the number of cases dropped by one last year to259, the lowest since 1998. The nation, however, saw an 8 percent increasein hate crimes. Florida usually averages about 277 hate crimes each year.
And so days after demonstrators descended on the Justice Department inWashington, demanding the federal government respond more vigorously tonoose hangings and other instances of racial antagonism, Florida AttorneyGeneral Bill McCollum said his office will do its part.
"Our Office of Civil Rights is committed to fighting any hate-motivatedinjustices as part of its mission," he said in a statement.
more . . . . .
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flaboyscouts1120sbnov20,0,4128104,print.story
Philly gives Scouts ultimatum on gays
By Dafna Linzer
The Washington Post
November 20, 2007
PHILADELPHIA
This may be the last free Thanksgiving dinner for the Boy Scouts ofPhiladelphia.
Citing a local 1982 "fair practices" law, the city solicitor has given theScouts until Dec. 3 to renounce its policy of excluding homosexuals orforfeit the grand, Beaux-Arts building it has rented from the city for $1 ayear since 1928.
"While we respect the right of the Boy Scouts to prohibit participation inits activities by homosexuals, we will not subsidize that discrimination bypassing on the costs to the people of Philadelphia," the solicitor, RomuloDiaz, said last week.
The city has yet to complete an official assessment of the property. But ithas tentatively placed the market value at $200,000 a year and has invitedthe Boy Scouts to remain in the nearly 100-year-old building as payingtenants.
The confrontation between the city and the nation's third-largest Scoutschapter has been building for four years, with each side blaming the otherfor backing out of previous agreements and for escalating tensions.
more . . . . .
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-hate-crimes,0,3563595,print.story
Hate Crimes Rose 8 Percent in 2006
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
Associated Press Writer
4:46 AM EST, November 20, 2007
WASHINGTON
Hate crime incidents rose nearly 8 percent last year, the FBI reportedMonday, as civil rights advocates increasingly take to the streets toprotest what they call official indifference to intimidation and attacksagainst blacks and other minorities.
Police across the nation reported 7,722 criminal incidents in 2006 targetingvictims or property as a result of bias against a race, religion, sexualorientation, ethnic or national origin or physical or mental disability.That was up 7.8 percent from 7,163 incidents reported in 2005.
More than half the incidents were motivated by racial prejudice, but thereport did not even pick up all the racially motivated incidents last year.
Although the noose incidents and beatings among students at Jena, La., highschool occurred in the last half of 2006, they were not included in thereport. Only 12,600 of the nation's more than 17,000 local, county, stateand federal police agencies participated in the hate crime reporting programin 2006 and neither Jena nor LaSalle Parish, in which the town is located,were among the agencies reporting.
Nevertheless, the Jena incidents, and a subsequent rash of noose and otherracial incidents around the country, have spawned civil rightsdemonstrations that culminated last week at Justice Department headquartershere. The department said it investigated the Jena incident but decided notto prosecute because the federal government does not typically bring hatecrime charges against juveniles.
more . . . . .
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/889/v-print/story/313881.html
Sex scandal hits Atlanta-area megachurch
By DORIE TURNER
Posted on Tue, Nov. 20, 2007
The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center ofa sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother's wife andfathered a child by her.
Members of Archbishop Earl Paulk's family stood at the pulpit of theCathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church a few Sundaysago and revealed the secret exposed by a recent court-ordered paternitytest.
In truth, this is not the first - or even the second - sex scandal to engulfPaulk and the independent, charismatic church. But this time, he could be introuble with the law for lying under oath about the affair.
The living proof of that lie is 34-year-old D.E. Paulk, who for years wasknown publicly as Earl Paulk's nephew.
"I am so very sorry for the collateral damage it's caused our family and thefamilies hurt by the removing of the veil that hid our humanity and oursinfulness," said D.E. Paulk, who received the mantle of head pastor a yearand a half ago.
more . . . . .
=
ExpressGayNews.com
http://business.mainetoday.com/newsdirect/release.html?id=5113
University of Southern Maine Sanctions Transgendered Public Bathrooms
Released 11/19/07
In honor of the 4th Annual Transgendered Day of Remembrance, the Universityof Southern Maine (USM) sanctioned "gender neutral" public bathrooms onFriday, November 16, 2007.
University announcements were taped over the traditional 'men' and 'women'bathroom designations announcing the change. According to the USMannouncement:
"To ensure that there are safe and accessible bathrooms available for allparticipants of the [University of Southern Maine's] 4th AnnualTransgendered Day of Remembrance event, these restrooms have been designatedas gender neutral.
"...transgender individuals and those whose gender may not conform withsocietal stereotypes associated with their birth sex may be subject toharassment or violence when using male- or female-specific restrooms.
"For these reasons, these bathrooms will temporarily be gender neutral. Allother bathrooms in the [University of Southern Maine's] Glickman FamilyLibrary will remain sex-segregated."
more . . . . .
=
ExpressGayNews.com
http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2007/11/uk-govt-shares-efiles-on-executions-of.html
UK Govt Shares eFiles on Executions of IranianGays, Women, Others
Monday, November 19, 2007
Less than a week ago I filed a request with the UK government for copies oftheir papers on executions of gays, which were the basis for a story in theTimes of London. I am very pleased to share with you all of what wasprovided to me today, including the paper's original request for documents,in this unusually long blog entry.
Reading the documents gave me a sense of how at least one part of theBritish government monitors the death penalty in Iran, how and why it ismeted out, and also raises important human rights issues about theexecutions with the Iranians.
We need more interest and pressure like this from governments aboutexecutions in Iran and the plight of its gay population, because it can leadto more respect for the human rights protections of gay Iranians and allIranians.
-
19 November 2007
Dear Mr Petrelis
I am writing to confirm that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) hasnow completed its search for the information which you requested on 14November 2007.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.wnbc.com/news/14630717/detail.html
Police Arrest 2 In Anti-Gay Beating Of 'Top Chef' Contestant
POSTED: 9:22 am EST November 18, 2007
SEA CLIFF, N.Y. -- Two women have been arrested in an anti-gay attack on a former "Top Chef" reality show contestant and her friends, police said.
Nassau County police announced the arrests Saturday, a day after victimJosie Smith-Malave's attorney said she had filed a complaint accusinginvestigators of not pursuing the case energetically enough. Police saidFriday that an arrest had recently been made and another was imminent.
Smith-Malave, who is openly gay and appeared on Season 2 of the Bravochannel show, and three other women were assaulted by about a dozen peopleafter being thrown out of a Sea Cliff bar on Sept. 1, according to police.The attackers hurled slurs about the women's perceived sexual orientation,spat on them and hit them, police said.
Melissa Trimarchi, 21, was arrested Saturday night on a misdemeanor assaultcharge, police said. She was released on an appearance ticket until a Nov.30 court date. No working telephone number could be found for Trimarchi atthe Sea Cliff address police gave, and they didn't know whether she had anattorney.
Police also said Saturday that Elizabeth Borroughs, 20, had been arrestedTuesday on a misdemeanor charge of aggravated harassment. She also wasreleased on an appearance ticket and is due in court Friday.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.charlotte.com/breaking_news/story/367799.html
Did Dems avoid gay candidate?
MARK JOHNSON
Posted on Sun, Nov. 18, 2007
Former Wall Street investor Jim Neal of Chapel Hill announced he was runningfor the U.S. Senate.
N.C. Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro declared a week later that she was notrunning for the U.S. Senate.
Both are Democrats. Guess which one received a phone call from U.S. Sen.Chuck Schumer, who heads the Democratic Party's efforts to recruit Senatecandidates?
Schumer and the national Democrats, who boast of their party'sinclusiveness, effectively ignored Neal, who is openly gay. After heannounced his campaign in October, he telephoned Schumer. The call wasn'treturned. Neal was the first Democrat to step up to challenge RepublicanU.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
Instead, Schumer, of New York, called Hagan, who had taken herself out ofthe race, and encouraged her to jump back in. She later did.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117975948.html?categoryId=2834&cs=1
PTLesbian politics more than marriage
Today's issues transcend personal rights
By DAVID MERMELSTEIN
Posted: Tue., Nov. 13, 2007, 7:20pm
When it comes to politics, what do lesbians in the industry want? The samethings many of their straight peers crave, it would appear.
"I'd say civil rights, health care, relief from poverty -- the basics," saysNina Jacobson, former prexy of Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group and now anindependent producer at DreamWorks. "I've always seen gay and lesbian lifeas part of a larger civil-rights conversation. But I that think as alesbian, you may be more attuned to such issues and not take civil rightsfor granted."
Melissa Etheridge, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning rock musician and singer,echoes that view, noting: "I don't think it makes a difference that one is alesbian. A lesbian is a woman who is concerned for her country and fellowcountrymen and women."
And Christine Vachon, producer of the landmark gay-themed pics "Boys Don'tCry" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," expresses similar feelings. "It's hardfor me to think in specifically gay-oriented terms," she says. "Whatmotivates me more than anything is this war, and the administration's waginga cultural war on anything deemed different ... including homosexuals. Andthat applies just as easily to people of different colors and creeds."
Yet not all industry lesbians choose to raise their voices or flex theirpower, including several key players who refused interview requests for thisarticle specifically because they wanted to remain out of the spotlight."Being a lesbian doesn't make one inherently political, though I wish itdid," suggests Ilene Chaiken, creator of Showtime's "The L Word."
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071116/30115_Judge_Declares_Hate_Crimes_Amendment_Covering_Gays_Unconstitutional.htm
Judge Declares Hate Crimes Amendment Covering Gays Unconstitutional
Fri, Nov. 16, 2007 Posted: 15:09:13 PM EST
A state court struck down amendments to Pennsylvania's version of a hatecrime law Thursday, declaring the statutes that cover crimes committed withbias against sexual orientation unconstitutional.
A state court struck down amendments to Pennsylvania's version of a hatecrime law Thursday, declaring the statutes that cover crimes committed withbias against sexual orientation unconstitutional.
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled 4-1 against the enactment of the2002 amendment because it did not retain the original purpose of a bill thataddressed agricultural vandalism and crop destruction.
Judge James Gardner Colins wrote in the majority opinion that the courtagreed with petitioners that HB 1493 "did not retain its original purpose asit moved through the enactment process," thus violating Article III of thestate Constitution.
He declared the provision "unconstitutional and therefore null and void."
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/11/17/18461915.php
Marriage Equality Movement Flourishing in the Capital City!
by Christine Allen
Saturday Nov 17th, 2007 8:09 PM
The marriage equality movement in the Sacramento area was not derailed bythe Governor's veto of AB 43 - new documentary to be shown at CSUS thismonth!
Contacts:
Kinna Crocker 916-284-3680 ca-sacramento@marriageequality.org
Christine Allen 916-455-4256 coordinator@marriageequality.org
Matt Kennedy, Production Assistant, 917-548-3087 matthewjkennedy@mac.com
Nicole Scanlan, Coordinator, PRIDE CENTER 916-278-8720
WHAT: Sacramento Premier of Pursuit of Equality
http://www.pursuitofequality.com/
Hosted by: Sacramento Chapter of Marriage Equality USA
http://www.marriageequality.org/meusa/ and the California State University
Sacramento PRIDE Center http://www.csus.edu/pride/
WHEN Friday, November 30, 2007
TIME: 6:00 PM
WHERE: Hinde Auditorium, University Union, CSUS, 6000 J ST, Sacramento, CA
95819
WHO: Open to the Public
Admission and parking in Lot 8 FREE.
Filmmakers will be present.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://gaylesbiannews.blogspot.com/2007/11/gay-somalis-in-london-launch-community.html
Gay Somalis in London Launch Community Website
Saturday, November 17, 2007
A new website, Somali Gay Community, has been launched to serve the smallgay Somali community in London - and beyond.
It is believed to be the first of its kind in Somali history and cultureanywhere in the world.
"Somalia is an Islamic country and, as they think that homosexuality is aWestern illness, we do not exist in their eyes," said Muraad, one of theSomali gays in London behind the website.
Muraad is the name used within the London gay Somali community.
"Though we live in the West, we still fear of our families and what theSomali community in general could do to us."
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/world/middleeast/16saudi.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Ruling Jolts Even Saudis: 200 Lashes for Rape Victim
By RASHEED ABOU-ALSAMH
November 16, 2007
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 15 - A Saudi court on Tuesday more than doubledthe number of lashes that a female rape victim was sentenced to last yearafter her lawyer appealed the original sentence. The decision, which manylawyers found shocking even by Saudi standards of justice, has provoked arare public debate about the treatment of women here.
The victim's lawyer, Abdulrahman al-Lahem, a well-known human rightsactivist, drew the court's ire because of his strong public criticism of thehandling of the case. He has called his client's conviction unjust and saidthe sentences of the seven men who raped her were too lenient.
He is also known for his past defense of critics of the monarchy.
The victim's name has not been released. She was raped about 18 months agoin Qatif, a city in the Eastern Province, and has become known in the Saudimedia as "the Qatif girl." She was 19 years old at the time of the assault.
Her case has been widely debated since the court sentenced her to 90 lashesa year ago for being in the same car as an unrelated man, even after itruled that she had subsequently been raped. For a woman to be in seclusionwith a man who is not her husband or a relative is a crime in Saudi Arabia,whose legal code is based on a strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic law.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-scripture_thinknov18,0,6677080.story
Bible study: The relevant Scriptures on homosexuality
Bible study, circa 2007
By Manya A. Brachear
Tribune religion reporter
November 18, 2007
It's easy to look at homosexuality as the dominant issue dividing Protestantdenominations today. But a deeper look shows that the debate overhomosexuality goes beyond whether it is morally wrong.
A more profound question is at stake here: How should people of faithinterpret the Bible?
What the Bible has to say about anything is a code that sleuths and scholarshave been trying to crack for centuries. That the latest riddle concernshomosexuality does not set it apart from previous debates about otherbiblical missives and mandates. It's just that this one threatens to tearapart the Episcopal Church.
Ever since the denomination consecrated an openly gay man as bishop of NewHampshire, conservative Anglican leaders have led a charge to disown theAmerican arm of the Anglican Communion. They say liberal Episcopalians havedisregarded the authority of Scripture, succumbed to the whims of secularculture and mistakenly embraced modern biblical scholarship.
Those who support ordaining gay and lesbian clergy insist that Scriptureremains the authority in their lives, but that it is open to interpretation.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_daniel_g_071113_save_a_soul_3a_nip_a_g.htm
Save a Soul: Nip a Gay in the Bud!
By Daniel Geery
November 13, 2007
". I have done such acts as looking (maybe lusting, I pray so hard that Iwasn't) at my self in skimpy underwear. Whenever I wear it I feel like asexual sensation.
"Yesterday in the bathroom (in front of the mirror), I wiggled my body veryrapidly, making my genitals bounce up and down. I get a little bit of thatfeeling mentioned above as I write this. After I did this, I immediatelyasked forgiveness of God, went in the shower but did it again there."
According to that guru of purity and bastion of right-wing morality, JamesDobson, the teenage "prehomosexual" who wrote the above words is"representative of many other preteens and teens around the world who haveawakened to something terrifying within-something they don'tunderstand-something that creates enormous confusion and doubt. These kidsoften recognize very early in life that they are 'different' from otherboys."
I learned all this in Dobson's book, Bringing Up Boys (Tyndale HousePublishers, 2001), in Chapter 9, "The Origins of Homosexuality." I'd heardmuch over the years about James Dobson, and the wonderful advice he gives toparents about how to raise kids. And given that as a parent and as aprofessional educator, I disagreed with everything I read or heard from him,I had long contemplated buying one of his books, in an attempt to see wherethis revered author was coming from, and maybe in the process get a handleon some of my own faulty thinking. After all, I suspect that he and I mightactually agree that raising kids is the most important single thing we cando for the future of the human race.
As it turned out, this one chapter, which I flipped to for a preview, got meup to speed pretty quick. In an attempt to spare you from buying the wholebook like I did (or possibly send you to it, if like millions of others youinherited the Dobson Worship Gene), I herein share some Dobsonian wisdom onthe topic of homosexuality.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7100295.stm
Tutu chides Church for gay stance
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has criticised the Anglican Church andits leadership for its attitudes towards homosexuality.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4, he said the Archbishop of Canterbury, DrRowan Williams, had failed to demonstrate that God is "welcoming".
He also repeated accusations that the Church was "obsessed" with the issueof gay priests.
He said it should rather be focusing on global problems such as Aids.
"Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and Aids - a devastatingpandemic, and conflict," said Archbishop Tutu, 76.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/16/wmicro116.xml
Pastor in Microsoft 'gay rights' share bid
By Toby Harnden in Redmond, Washington
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 16/11/2007
A black conservative Christian pastor of an evangelical megachurch has vowedto take over Microsoft by packing it with new shareholders who will voteagainst the company's policy of championing gay rights.
The Reverend Ken Hutcherson, a former Dallas Cowboys linebacker, heads theAntioch Bible Church in Redmond, home of Microsoft.
He told Microsoft executives at a shareholders' meeting last week that hewould be their "worst nightmare" if they continued to defy him.
Antioch Bible Church attracts around 3,500 worshippers for its services andMr Hutcherson is a powerful figure in the Christian conservative movement.
His church, which emphasises racial diversity and a strict moral code, grewfrom a bible study class for just 15 people in 1984.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.charlotte.com/409/story/368073.html
N.C. Baptists clash over gays and the church
ED WILLIAMS
Posted on Sun, Nov. 18, 2007
Well, we've done it again.
The "we," in this case, is Myers Park Baptist Church, where I've been amember for a couple of decades.
What we've done this time is get kicked out of the N.C. Baptist StateConvention.
This is not the first time the church has been at odds with a Baptistorganization.
Back in 1967, the Mecklenburg Baptist Association decided to excludechurches that accepted members who had not been baptized by immersion. Amongthem was Myers Park Baptist.
Our first senior minister, George Heaton, considered baptism a reveredtradition but not at all essential.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071106/29979_Christian_Students_Fight_Homophobic_Label,_Promote_Campus_Safety.htm
Christian Students Fight Homophobic Label, Promote Campus Safety
Students nationwide kicked off a campaign Monday aimed at ending the culturewars over issues like homosexuality that have divided Americans.
Tue, Nov. 06, 2007 Posted: 15:18:58 PM EST
Students nationwide kicked off a campaign Monday aimed at ending the culturewars over issues like homosexuality that have divided Americans.
The annual "Allies, Too" campaign is rallying Christian students this weekto commit to making their campuses safe and harassment free and to advocate"true tolerance" and diversity, particularly when it comes to differing -and sometimes opposing - views on homosexuality.
"It's a chance to throw off the dishonest, unfair labels of bigotry andhatred that some people use to silence others' points of view," according tothe campaign, which is spearheaded by Exodus Youth, a ministry of ExodusInternational. "It's a call to your community to engage in honest reasoningand debate, not a culture war."
Exodus is one of the largest outreaches to those struggling with homosexualattraction.
"Allies, Too" participants commit to the belief that "sexuality waspurposefully created for marriage between a man and a woman" and that "ahomosexual, bisexual or transgender identity and/or behavior are outside ofthe intentional design of human relationships and sexuality, and thereforearen't what's best for us, regardless of whether we are drawn to them,"according to the campaign's core principles.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.pauza18nov18,0,136893.story
Chasing HIV, one failure at a time
UM scientist and colleagues press on for vaccine
By Stephanie Desmon
Sun reporter
November 18, 2007
One thing that Dave Pauza drills into his graduate students is theinevitability of seemingly endless, maddening failure in the work they do inthe lab. He refuses to give pep talks, telling them they should quit if theycan't handle the frustration.
But if you get the sense that Pauza is a pessimist, you get the wrong senseof the man.
He and others at the University of Maryland's Institute of Human Virologyare testing what could be a vaccine to halt the spread of HIV -- or whatcould just as easily be another setback on a path already lousy with them.
The absence of a vaccine more than two decades after the discovery of HIV --despite the considerable investment of money and intellect -- disturbs Pauzain that it continues to devastate the lives of millions across the planet.
Yet the way Pauza sees it, failure simply means the possible ways to conquerAIDS have been narrowed down. More is learned about what doesn't work,leaving valuable clues to what someday will.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.showbizspy.com/2007/11/17/simon-cowell-me-dear-gay-dear-no-dear/
Simon Cowell: Me Dear? Gay Dear? No Dear!
Posted by: Paul Millar @ 17 Nov -
Simon Cowell has slashed (and probably blushed) at reports suggesting thatthe X Factor judge was G-A-Y, stating that he was "absolutely baffled" atthe recent speculation.
Some fans have said for a long time that Cowell is too effeminate to bestraight - however this week the music mogul has responded.
"It's probably my mother's influence," Cowell told the Daily Mail. "If Iwas, why hide it? It's not as if the music business would be an odd placefor a gay man to work. And anyway, if I was trying to hide the fact that Iwas gay, I would be off playing rugby every Saturday, wouldn't I?"
Then again, Cowell did tell the press that he was scared of theresponsibility of kids, perhaps suggesting he was indeed a homosexual.
"I love kids - at least when they are old enough to talk," he said. "But myown? No. I'm terrified of the responsibility. Where would they fit in? Ihave to be able to fly to Los Angeles at a minute's notice."
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://gaylesbiannews.blogspot.com/2007/11/world-cities-invited-to-outgames-2009.html
World Cities Invited to Outgames 2009 to Promote Gay Tolerance, Diversity
Saturday, November 17, 2007
COPENHAGEN, November 16, 2007 - Eleven cities from around the world havebeen invited by the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen to participate in an exhibitionpromoting urban diversity and tolerance during the World Outgames in 2009.
The World Outgames is an international sporting, cultural and human rightsevent organised to celebrate and recognize the roles of lesbian, gay,bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in society.
Several hundred thousand participants, guests and visitors are expected toattend the games in Copenhagen from July 25 to August 2, 2009.
The Out Cities project is the brainchild of the World Outgames organisers inCopenhagen and cities invited include Berlin, Istanbul, Madrid, Melbourne,New York, Riga, Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, Tokyo and Århus in Denmark.
"We have invited cities with concerned LGBT populations to create a forum inwhich to discuss and present the impact of diversity and tolerance on urbaneconomic growth and social well-being," said Michael Steensgard, director ofthe cultural program for World Outgames 2009.
more . . . . .
=
To Form a More Perfect Union: Marriage Equality News
Information, news, and discussion about the legal recognition of same-sexcouples and their families, including marriages, domestic partnerships,civil unions, adoptions, foster children and similar issues.
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to the website, above, for the following articles:
--
The Anglican bishop of Niagara, in southern Ontario, has given his approvalto allowing clergy to bless same-sex couples who have had a civil marriage.Gay marriage has been legal in Canada since 2005. The Niagara diocese synodvoted on the weekend to support blessing civilly-married gay couples, "whereat least one party is baptized" but left the final approval up to BishopRalph Spence. Of the 294 clergy and lay delegates, 239 voted yes, 53 said noand two abstained. Spence refused to implement a similar vote three yearsago.
--
Ohio: A governor generally viewed as a supporter of the gay communitysidestepped a potentially divisive issue going into next year's presidentialelection. Strickland, the first Democrat elected governor in 20 years,signed an executive order in May that banned workplace discrimination in theexecutive branch based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The orderspecifically banned state agencies from offering a "rate of compensation"that was different for gay and straight employees. But Stricklandinterpreted "rate of compensation" as only salary, not benefits, frustratingsome in the gay community. "It looks to me that this is more of a politicaljudgment than it is a principled judgment," said Marc Spindelman, an OhioState University law professor and gay rights advocate. "It may be that thegovernor doesn't want to arouse a sleeping giant." Spindelman's sleepinggiant is the specter of a fight over gay rights heading into the 2008presidential election. Democrats need only to look back to 2004, when theproposed gay marriage ban was credited for helping turn out culturalconservatives whose votes swung the state to President Bush.
--
New Jersey: Eight years ago, it would have been unimaginable. But overbrunch on a warm Sunday morning last fall, Micah Mahjoubian leaned over andasked his boss a question. "I told him Ryan and I got engaged to be married,and I'd like him to consider whether he would officiate our ceremony." JohnStreet, once regarded as Public Enemy No. 1 of the gay community, did notflinch. Yes, he said. So on Saturday, as the clock winds down on his time asmayor, Street will preside over his first same-sex commitment ceremony, inCity Hall. With 125 guests expected, it will resemble in every way atraditional wedding but will have no legal standing, since Pennsylvaniaprohibits gay marriage.
--
Sacramento city leaders have joined the pitched political debate over gays'rights to wed, filing a legal petition in support of same-sex marriages aspart of a landmark case to come before the state Supreme Court next year.Council members voted 8-1 in a closed session Nov. 6 to join an amicuscuriae, or friend of the court brief, on behalf of plaintiffs in SanFrancisco seeking to void parts of the state Family Code that do notrecognize marriage rights for same-sex couples. "This is very much a civilrights issue," said Sacramento Councilman Ray Tretheway, who first asked thecouncil to consider the legal brief last month. "This (position) definitelyreflects what the city of Sacramento is - progressive, addressinghuman-rights issues that absolutely affect many of our citizens."
--
The Student Coalition for Marriage Equality, equipped with fliers andposters, stopped students walking through Bruin Plaza on Friday and asked,"If you were president, would you support same-sex marriage?"The organization's event, "If I Were President," sought to educate studentsabout same-sex marriage legislation and other pieces of legislation thattouch on civil rights issues.
--
The leader of the Toledo Catholic Diocese yesterday urged parishioners tooppose the city's creation of a domestic-partner registry, but the onlything that can slow the legislation now is a mayoral veto.A statement issuedby Bishop Leonard P. Blair, read at Sunday Mass, said: "We ought not to beencouraging cohabitation by giving it legal recognition as an alternative tomarriage."The bishop asked parishioners to "join me in opposing measureslike the domestic-partnership registry, particularly when there has beenlittle time for public discussion."Mayor Carty Finkbeiner has until the endof the day Friday to act on legislation approved by City Council on Tuesdayin a 10-2 vote. The legislation allows same-sex or heterosexual unmarriedcouples to register as domestic partners, providing employers who want tooffer benefits to unmarried couples a way to check their relationshipstatus.Mayor Finkbeiner's spokesman, Brian Schwartz, says the mayor has notdecided what he will do.
--
(Chicago, Illinois) Jen Rude has become the first lesbian pastor to beordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America since thedenomination voted last year to temporarily leave it up to individualbishops whether to maintain the ban on clergy in same-sex relationships.
The measure - the product of three years' work by a special church taskforce - was meant as a compromise that will satisfy both those who supportgay clergy and those who regard gay sex as sinful. A final decision will bemade in 2009. Nevertheless most Lutheran bishops require gay and lesbianpastors to make make a vow of celibacy before they can be ordained.Heterosexual ministers are not required to make a similar vow. Rude, whosaid she is not in a relationship, refused to make the vow because sheconsiders it discriminatory and he suburban Chicago church, ResurrectionLutheran Church in Lakeview, stood behind her.
--
Five years after the University System of Georgia Board of Regents ignored adrive to obtain domestic partner benefits for unmarried couples, theUniversity Council at the University of Georgia has renewed the call. Lastmonth, the council voted to join Georgia State University in asking theregents to extend the benefits to unmarried workers, allowing them the samehealth insurance and other benefits given to the partners of marriedworkers.
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
GLBT DIGEST November 19, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
The Detroit News
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071119/OPINION03/711190304
Michigan's first gay mayor wins by integration
Deb Price
Monday, November 19, 2007
If you've ever felt like busting loose and painting your hometown gay-friendly lavender, you might want to grab some painting lessons from Craig Covey, the first openly gay mayor elected in Michigan.
Covey's inspiring story -- and that of Ferndale, population 22,000 -- starts with a paintbrush. That would be the one in his hand in 1989, when for $56,000 he bought a house that -- like the Detroit inner-ring suburb where it's located -- needed "a little TLC."
"I selected Ferndale because it had a little kernel of a gay community," recalls Covey, then 32. "You put on a fresh coat of paint. You trim the bushes. You put in gardens."
Covey talked up the town's potential to gay friends, who started moving there with their own buckets of paint and hedge clippers.
Six years after arriving, Covey decided to take the next big step toward really belonging to a community -- being part of local politics -- and ran for City Council. Out of five candidates for two slots, he came in dead last.
A friend took him aside and said, "If you wish to be a councilman, here's what you've got to do: The people want to see you and talk to you. You've got to go to church events and join the Elks and get on boards and commissions."
That's what Covey did to demonstrate his commitment to making Ferndale a better place for everyone: He joined the Elks, the town's recreation commission and a youth assistance board. He and other members of a gay residents group donated a globe to the library.
"This stuff probably sounds hokey to someone in a big city. We weren't protesting outside city hall. We were joining the Beautification Commission, which picks the prettiest house on the block.
"We planted flowers at the Ferndale Historical Society. We started a pub crawl, and within a few years had 400 people joining us. We integrated with the straight community," he explains, adding that, as the town gentrified, the surge in the property values delighted homeowners.
When Covey ran again for City Council in 1999, he won. Four years later, he was re-elected. And on Nov. 6, he was among at least 32 victorious gay candidates ationwide.
The United States has 20 gay mayors, including in Providence, R.I.; Maywood, N.J.; ey Biscayne, Fla.; Palm Springs, Calif.; and my home town of Takoma Park, Md., ccording to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which helps elect gay candidates.
Covey's years in Ferndale are a gay how-to manual on transforming a town into a place where you really feel at home. He laughs with pride that as mayor he makes $8,000 a year and has a huge say in such things as sidewalk crack repairs and arbage pickup.
Last year his city, sometimes called "Fabulous Ferndale" and now about 15 percent ay, passed a gay rights ordinance 65 percent to 35 percent on the third try.
The lessons of Ferndale can be applied anywhere, Covey says: "Instead of separating into a gay ghetto) or demanding our rights, we are achieving what we wanted, eighbor by neighbor."
Ferndale and its new mayor -- what a fabulous example. Where's my paintbrush?
Reach Deb Price at (202) 662-8736 and dprice@detnews.com.
=
365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/111907oz.htm
Oz Gays Hold Mass Ceremony
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 19, 2007 - 9:00 am ET
(Melbourne, Australia) Fifteen same-sex couples held a simulated massmarriage ceremony Sunday in Melbourne to draw attention to the Australiangovernment's foot-dragging on recognizing gay relationships.
The ceremony, called Loved Up, was held as part of the LGBT festival calledFeast.
"What we wanted to do as a festival was celebrate diverse love and put itout to the wider public so it can be recognized as equal to straightmarriage,'' Daniel Clarke, the Feast Festival's artistic director, toldFairfax Media.
"Of course it's political, but it's a very personal day and it's going to bea very, very moving day.''
Twelve of the couples were lesbian, and three gay.
more . . . . .
=
365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/111907luth.htm
Lesbian Lutheran Pastor Ordained
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 19, 2007 - 6:30 am ET
(Chicago, Illinois) Jen Rude has become the first lesbian pastor to beordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America since thedenomination voted last year to temporarily leave it up to individualbishops whether to maintain the ban on clergy in same-sex relationships.
The measure - the product of three years' work by a special church taskforce - was meant as a compromise that will satisfy both those who supportgay clergy and those who regard gay sex as sinful.
A final decision will be made in 2009.
Nevertheless most Lutheran bishops require gay and lesbian pastors to makemake a vow of celibacy before they can be ordained. Heterosexual ministersare not required to make a similar vow.
Rude, who said she is not in a relationship, refused to make the vow becauseshe considers it discriminatory and he suburban Chicago church, ResurrectionLutheran Church in Lakeview, stood behind her.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Womens eNews - Nov 16, 2007
http://www.womensenews.org
Legislation to protect gay and lesbian Americans that passed the Houselast week fell short for transgender people and their advocates, JulieR. Enszer reports today. They wanted "gender identity" protections thatgot cut from the original version.
Legislative Bargain Frays Some in LGBT Community
By Julie R. Enszer - WeNews correspondent
(WOMENSENEWS)--While many of her political allies were celebrating lastweek's passage of a congressional bill to end workplace discriminationagainst lesbians and gays, Mara Keisling, executive director of theNational Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C., wasdistraught by the "watered-down, anemic bill."
While a Nov. 6 poll by Human Rights Campaign found that 70 percent of lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender, or LGBT, people expressed support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007, a significant faction say transgender people were singled out and left behind when the initial version of the bill was derailed in Congress.
In addition to banning discrimination against people based onhomosexuality, bisexuality or heterosexuality--as the bill passed bythe House of Representatives states--the initial version also protected"gender identity."
A less familiar idea than sexual orientation, gender identity iscrucial for transgender people because it recognizes that while much ofthe population may be "cisgender"--possessing a sense of genderidentity in sync with their sex organs at birth--not everyone is.
Providing gender identity protection would mean such things as notbeing fired for making a gender transition while employed or not havingto worry about being denied employment when birth certificates ordrivers' licenses don't reflect a person's gender presentation. Itwould also help people who live androgynously and are not easilyidentified as male or female.
more....
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Forwarded:
I'm writing on behalf of the Alliance against Homophobia and Discriminationof Sexual Minorities, an emergency coalition of South Korean LGBT rightsgroups against homophobia and the distorted Anti-Discrimination Bill (ADB),which is soon to be legislated.
We've created an online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/lgbtsk/petition.html.
Please sign it and tell others about it to show your support and to ensurethat the ADB is passed after the inclusion of the 7 deleted categories (including 'sexualorientation') as well as that of 'gender identity'.
=
To Form a More Perfect Union: Marriage Equality News
Information, news, and discussion about the legal recognition of same-sexcouples and their families, including marriages, domestic partnerships,civil unions, adoptions, foster children and similar issues.
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to the website, above, for the following articles:
--
Five years after the University System of Georgia Board of Regents ignored adrive to obtain domestic partner benefits for unmarried couples, theUniversity Council at the University of Georgia has renewed the call.Last month, the council voted to join Georgia State University in asking theregents to extend the benefits to unmarried workers, allowing them the samehealth insurance and other benefits given to the partners of marriedworkers.
--
UK - Four out of five adults oppose Government plans that would make iteasier for lesbian couples to have fertility treatment, according to a poll.Campaigners say there is growing opposition to a Bill which removes adoctor's legal duty to consider "the need for a father" when decidingwhether to go ahead with treatment. The Human Fertilisation and EmbryologyBill - due to be debated in the House of Lords today - would also allowlesbian couples to be regarded as the joint legal parents of childrenconceived with donated sperm or eggs. Critics - including former Tory leaderIain Duncan Smith - say the Bill is the "last nail in the coffin for thetraditional family" and a blow to fatherhood. However, campaigners forhomosexual rights say the new law simply removes discrimination against gaysand affects only a small number of people. The Human Fertilisation andEmbryology Bill - due to start its second reading today - is poised to bethe most contentious and controversial of this Parliament.
--
Australia - Stuart Baanstra, a Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH)activist, is going to court over refusing to sign the 2006 Census. His firsthearing on November 6 resulted in a rescheduling of the hearing untilNovember 27. Baanstra refused to fill out the census because "itdiscriminates against queer people. Question six refuses to classifyhomosexuals as married. All same-sex relationships were to be categorised asde facto even when partners ticked the marriage box. I refused to sign .because it makes same-sex marriage invisible", Baanstra told Green LeftWeekly. He is being charged with "failing to comply with a notice ofdirection" by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The magistrate hasthe power to dismiss charges against Baanstra, given he accepts the optionof a guilty plea with mitigating circumstances. However, the magistratecould find against him as well. Possible penalties include a fine, courtcosts and requirement to enter into a good behaviour bond of up to threeyears.
--
By Jimmy Creech:
When clergy talk about marriage as a religious matter, it's understandable;but when presidential candidates do, it's confusing and perpetuates themisunderstanding that marriage is solely a religious matter. Marriage hasboth religious and civil significance, but it's not exclusively one or theother. It's time the presidential candidates talk about marriage as a civilinstitution and leave the religion talk to the clergy. They are, after all,seeking the highest office of civil, not ecclesiastical, government. Duringmy 29 years as a United Methodist pastor, I conducted marriage rituals forcouples within the context of the Christian tradition. In preparation foreach, I counseled the couple about the spiritual aspect of their marriageand the experience of grace that would unite and sustain them. I also talkedwith them about the civil aspect of their marriage, the legal rights,protections and responsibilities that they would be assuming for oneanother.
--
Australia -
Fifteen gay and lesbian couples declared their love for one another in amass ceremony in Adelaide, drawing attention to Australia's "backward"same-sex marriage laws. The ceremony, entitled Loved Up, was held as part ofthe state's gay and lesbian cultural festival - Feast Festival. The 12female couples and three male couples declared their love before hundreds offamily and friends who gathered on the city's Montefiore Hill. The hour-longceremony was performed by three celebrants. Event organiser and participant,Daniel Clarke said it was a personal and political event for theparticipants. "What we wanted to do as a festival was celebrate diverse loveand put it out to the wider public so that it can be recognised as equal tostraight marriage," Mr Clarke, the Feast Festival's artistic director, saidbefore the ceremony. "Of course it's political, but it's a very personal dayand it's going to be a very, very moving day."
--
Jamaica:
Another textbook is to be withdrawn from the nation's secondary-schoolsystem. This time, the book is on the Education Ministry's approved list. Itwas found wanting during an ongoing audit commissioned by Minister ofEducation Andrew Holness. The audit was ordered after The Gleaner broke newsthat a home economics book with a controversial clause regarding same-sexunions was being used in schools. However, this latest book, which isauthored by Michael Keene and is entitled New Steps in Religious Educationfor the Caribbean Book 3, lists homosexual unions as a norm. "Many people dofind it difficult to accept that same-sex relationships are indeed normal,"reads a section in the book that ministry officials are most concernedabout. "It is on the approved textbook listing, so we are withdrawing ourendorsement of that text. We will, therefore, not distribute the book anylonger and it will be replaced for the next school year," says Dr. CharleneAshley, director of communications at the Ministry of Education. However,Dr. Ashley tells The Sunday Gleaner that the book would not be immediatelyremoved from the system. She explained that schools would be allowed to usethe book until the end of the school year and then it would be removed fromthe system.
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
The Detroit News
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071119/OPINION03/711190304
Michigan's first gay mayor wins by integration
Deb Price
Monday, November 19, 2007
If you've ever felt like busting loose and painting your hometown gay-friendly lavender, you might want to grab some painting lessons from Craig Covey, the first openly gay mayor elected in Michigan.
Covey's inspiring story -- and that of Ferndale, population 22,000 -- starts with a paintbrush. That would be the one in his hand in 1989, when for $56,000 he bought a house that -- like the Detroit inner-ring suburb where it's located -- needed "a little TLC."
"I selected Ferndale because it had a little kernel of a gay community," recalls Covey, then 32. "You put on a fresh coat of paint. You trim the bushes. You put in gardens."
Covey talked up the town's potential to gay friends, who started moving there with their own buckets of paint and hedge clippers.
Six years after arriving, Covey decided to take the next big step toward really belonging to a community -- being part of local politics -- and ran for City Council. Out of five candidates for two slots, he came in dead last.
A friend took him aside and said, "If you wish to be a councilman, here's what you've got to do: The people want to see you and talk to you. You've got to go to church events and join the Elks and get on boards and commissions."
That's what Covey did to demonstrate his commitment to making Ferndale a better place for everyone: He joined the Elks, the town's recreation commission and a youth assistance board. He and other members of a gay residents group donated a globe to the library.
"This stuff probably sounds hokey to someone in a big city. We weren't protesting outside city hall. We were joining the Beautification Commission, which picks the prettiest house on the block.
"We planted flowers at the Ferndale Historical Society. We started a pub crawl, and within a few years had 400 people joining us. We integrated with the straight community," he explains, adding that, as the town gentrified, the surge in the property values delighted homeowners.
When Covey ran again for City Council in 1999, he won. Four years later, he was re-elected. And on Nov. 6, he was among at least 32 victorious gay candidates ationwide.
The United States has 20 gay mayors, including in Providence, R.I.; Maywood, N.J.; ey Biscayne, Fla.; Palm Springs, Calif.; and my home town of Takoma Park, Md., ccording to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which helps elect gay candidates.
Covey's years in Ferndale are a gay how-to manual on transforming a town into a place where you really feel at home. He laughs with pride that as mayor he makes $8,000 a year and has a huge say in such things as sidewalk crack repairs and arbage pickup.
Last year his city, sometimes called "Fabulous Ferndale" and now about 15 percent ay, passed a gay rights ordinance 65 percent to 35 percent on the third try.
The lessons of Ferndale can be applied anywhere, Covey says: "Instead of separating into a gay ghetto) or demanding our rights, we are achieving what we wanted, eighbor by neighbor."
Ferndale and its new mayor -- what a fabulous example. Where's my paintbrush?
Reach Deb Price at (202) 662-8736 and dprice@detnews.com.
=
365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/111907oz.htm
Oz Gays Hold Mass Ceremony
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 19, 2007 - 9:00 am ET
(Melbourne, Australia) Fifteen same-sex couples held a simulated massmarriage ceremony Sunday in Melbourne to draw attention to the Australiangovernment's foot-dragging on recognizing gay relationships.
The ceremony, called Loved Up, was held as part of the LGBT festival calledFeast.
"What we wanted to do as a festival was celebrate diverse love and put itout to the wider public so it can be recognized as equal to straightmarriage,'' Daniel Clarke, the Feast Festival's artistic director, toldFairfax Media.
"Of course it's political, but it's a very personal day and it's going to bea very, very moving day.''
Twelve of the couples were lesbian, and three gay.
more . . . . .
=
365gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/11/111907luth.htm
Lesbian Lutheran Pastor Ordained
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 19, 2007 - 6:30 am ET
(Chicago, Illinois) Jen Rude has become the first lesbian pastor to beordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America since thedenomination voted last year to temporarily leave it up to individualbishops whether to maintain the ban on clergy in same-sex relationships.
The measure - the product of three years' work by a special church taskforce - was meant as a compromise that will satisfy both those who supportgay clergy and those who regard gay sex as sinful.
A final decision will be made in 2009.
Nevertheless most Lutheran bishops require gay and lesbian pastors to makemake a vow of celibacy before they can be ordained. Heterosexual ministersare not required to make a similar vow.
Rude, who said she is not in a relationship, refused to make the vow becauseshe considers it discriminatory and he suburban Chicago church, ResurrectionLutheran Church in Lakeview, stood behind her.
more . . . . .
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Womens eNews - Nov 16, 2007
http://www.womensenews.org
Legislation to protect gay and lesbian Americans that passed the Houselast week fell short for transgender people and their advocates, JulieR. Enszer reports today. They wanted "gender identity" protections thatgot cut from the original version.
Legislative Bargain Frays Some in LGBT Community
By Julie R. Enszer - WeNews correspondent
(WOMENSENEWS)--While many of her political allies were celebrating lastweek's passage of a congressional bill to end workplace discriminationagainst lesbians and gays, Mara Keisling, executive director of theNational Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C., wasdistraught by the "watered-down, anemic bill."
While a Nov. 6 poll by Human Rights Campaign found that 70 percent of lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender, or LGBT, people expressed support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007, a significant faction say transgender people were singled out and left behind when the initial version of the bill was derailed in Congress.
In addition to banning discrimination against people based onhomosexuality, bisexuality or heterosexuality--as the bill passed bythe House of Representatives states--the initial version also protected"gender identity."
A less familiar idea than sexual orientation, gender identity iscrucial for transgender people because it recognizes that while much ofthe population may be "cisgender"--possessing a sense of genderidentity in sync with their sex organs at birth--not everyone is.
Providing gender identity protection would mean such things as notbeing fired for making a gender transition while employed or not havingto worry about being denied employment when birth certificates ordrivers' licenses don't reflect a person's gender presentation. Itwould also help people who live androgynously and are not easilyidentified as male or female.
more....
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Forwarded:
I'm writing on behalf of the Alliance against Homophobia and Discriminationof Sexual Minorities, an emergency coalition of South Korean LGBT rightsgroups against homophobia and the distorted Anti-Discrimination Bill (ADB),which is soon to be legislated.
We've created an online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/lgbtsk/petition.html.
Please sign it and tell others about it to show your support and to ensurethat the ADB is passed after the inclusion of the 7 deleted categories (including 'sexualorientation') as well as that of 'gender identity'.
=
To Form a More Perfect Union: Marriage Equality News
Information, news, and discussion about the legal recognition of same-sexcouples and their families, including marriages, domestic partnerships,civil unions, adoptions, foster children and similar issues.
http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/
Go to the website, above, for the following articles:
--
Five years after the University System of Georgia Board of Regents ignored adrive to obtain domestic partner benefits for unmarried couples, theUniversity Council at the University of Georgia has renewed the call.Last month, the council voted to join Georgia State University in asking theregents to extend the benefits to unmarried workers, allowing them the samehealth insurance and other benefits given to the partners of marriedworkers.
--
UK - Four out of five adults oppose Government plans that would make iteasier for lesbian couples to have fertility treatment, according to a poll.Campaigners say there is growing opposition to a Bill which removes adoctor's legal duty to consider "the need for a father" when decidingwhether to go ahead with treatment. The Human Fertilisation and EmbryologyBill - due to be debated in the House of Lords today - would also allowlesbian couples to be regarded as the joint legal parents of childrenconceived with donated sperm or eggs. Critics - including former Tory leaderIain Duncan Smith - say the Bill is the "last nail in the coffin for thetraditional family" and a blow to fatherhood. However, campaigners forhomosexual rights say the new law simply removes discrimination against gaysand affects only a small number of people. The Human Fertilisation andEmbryology Bill - due to start its second reading today - is poised to bethe most contentious and controversial of this Parliament.
--
Australia - Stuart Baanstra, a Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH)activist, is going to court over refusing to sign the 2006 Census. His firsthearing on November 6 resulted in a rescheduling of the hearing untilNovember 27. Baanstra refused to fill out the census because "itdiscriminates against queer people. Question six refuses to classifyhomosexuals as married. All same-sex relationships were to be categorised asde facto even when partners ticked the marriage box. I refused to sign .because it makes same-sex marriage invisible", Baanstra told Green LeftWeekly. He is being charged with "failing to comply with a notice ofdirection" by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The magistrate hasthe power to dismiss charges against Baanstra, given he accepts the optionof a guilty plea with mitigating circumstances. However, the magistratecould find against him as well. Possible penalties include a fine, courtcosts and requirement to enter into a good behaviour bond of up to threeyears.
--
By Jimmy Creech:
When clergy talk about marriage as a religious matter, it's understandable;but when presidential candidates do, it's confusing and perpetuates themisunderstanding that marriage is solely a religious matter. Marriage hasboth religious and civil significance, but it's not exclusively one or theother. It's time the presidential candidates talk about marriage as a civilinstitution and leave the religion talk to the clergy. They are, after all,seeking the highest office of civil, not ecclesiastical, government. Duringmy 29 years as a United Methodist pastor, I conducted marriage rituals forcouples within the context of the Christian tradition. In preparation foreach, I counseled the couple about the spiritual aspect of their marriageand the experience of grace that would unite and sustain them. I also talkedwith them about the civil aspect of their marriage, the legal rights,protections and responsibilities that they would be assuming for oneanother.
--
Australia -
Fifteen gay and lesbian couples declared their love for one another in amass ceremony in Adelaide, drawing attention to Australia's "backward"same-sex marriage laws. The ceremony, entitled Loved Up, was held as part ofthe state's gay and lesbian cultural festival - Feast Festival. The 12female couples and three male couples declared their love before hundreds offamily and friends who gathered on the city's Montefiore Hill. The hour-longceremony was performed by three celebrants. Event organiser and participant,Daniel Clarke said it was a personal and political event for theparticipants. "What we wanted to do as a festival was celebrate diverse loveand put it out to the wider public so that it can be recognised as equal tostraight marriage," Mr Clarke, the Feast Festival's artistic director, saidbefore the ceremony. "Of course it's political, but it's a very personal dayand it's going to be a very, very moving day."
--
Jamaica:
Another textbook is to be withdrawn from the nation's secondary-schoolsystem. This time, the book is on the Education Ministry's approved list. Itwas found wanting during an ongoing audit commissioned by Minister ofEducation Andrew Holness. The audit was ordered after The Gleaner broke newsthat a home economics book with a controversial clause regarding same-sexunions was being used in schools. However, this latest book, which isauthored by Michael Keene and is entitled New Steps in Religious Educationfor the Caribbean Book 3, lists homosexual unions as a norm. "Many people dofind it difficult to accept that same-sex relationships are indeed normal,"reads a section in the book that ministry officials are most concernedabout. "It is on the approved textbook listing, so we are withdrawing ourendorsement of that text. We will, therefore, not distribute the book anylonger and it will be replaced for the next school year," says Dr. CharleneAshley, director of communications at the Ministry of Education. However,Dr. Ashley tells The Sunday Gleaner that the book would not be immediatelyremoved from the system. She explained that schools would be allowed to usethe book until the end of the school year and then it would be removed fromthe system.
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST November 19, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/889/v-print/story/312682.html
Motor City named nation's most dangerous
By DAVID N. GOODMAN
Posted on Mon, Nov. 19, 2007
In another blow to the Motor City's tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St.Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a privateresearch group's controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBIcrime statistics.
The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American Societyof Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a statementattacking it as "an irresponsible misuse" of crime data.
The 14th annual "City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America" waspublished by CQ Press, a unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. It is based onthe FBI's Sept. 24 crime statistics report.
The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people based onper-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglaryand auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weightedbased on its seriousness, CQ Press said.
Last year's crime leader, St. Louis, fell to No. 2. Another Michigan city,Flint, ranked third, followed by Oakland Calif.; Camden, N.J.; Birmingham,Ala.; North Charleston, S.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Richmond, Calif.; andCleveland.
more . . . . .
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/v-print/story/313174.html
Puerto Rico in shock over fake doctors
BY SUSAN ANASAGASTI AKUS
Posted on Mon, Nov. 19, 2007
SAN JUAN-- When 14-month-old Yadriel Yadid González showed up at a clinicwith a high fever, the doctor on duty gave him an antibiotic and sent himhome.
Seven hours later the boy was taken to an emergency room where he died ofdengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease.
The doctor who treated the boy, Richard Pietri Sepúlveda, is now one of 113people indicted in an expanding federal probe that has rocked Puerto Rico'smedical community since August, when charges of doctors obtaining theirmedical licenses through fraud or bribery first surfaced.
''We did everything we could as parents. We put our son's life in his [thedoctor's] hands,'' said the boy's father, Carlos Francis González, who alongwith wife Yaira has filed a $6 million lawsuit in the case against Pietriand others.
'I fought with him. I said, `Please do something.' I knew something waswrong with my son,'' González said. ``We thought he was a real doctor so Ilet my guard down.''
more . . . . .
=
NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-china-movie-virus.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
"Lust, Caution" Prompts Virus, Medical Warnings
By REUTERS
November 19, 2007
Filed at 3:33 a.m. ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese anti-virus company has warned against freedownloads of Ang Lee's steamy spy thriller, "Lust, Caution," saying severalhundred sites offering the service were embedded with viruses.
And Chinese doctors have warned moviegoers not to try some of the moreambitious sexual positions featured in the uncut version of the film.
The movie has been a big hit in China, reaping 90 million yuan ($12.12million) in its first two weeks, despite losing seven minutes to thecensors, and has been tipped by some to be the year's biggest box officesuccess.
"People should be wary of Web sites that offer free downloading servicesbecause their personal passwords can be stolen," Li Ting, of RisingInternational Software Co. Ltd., told Reuters.
She said several hundred Web sites promoting "Lust, Caution" were embeddedwith viruses and 15 percent of download links were contaminated.
more . . . . .
=
WashingtonPost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800949_pf.html
Philadelphia Gives Boy Scouts Ultimatum
City Solicitor Tells Branch to Renounce Its Ban on Gays or Lose Rent Subsidy
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 19, 2007; A03
PHILADELPHIA -- This may be the last free Thanksgiving dinner for the BoyScouts of Philadelphia.
Citing a local 1982 "fair practices" law, the city solicitor has given theScouts until Dec. 3 to renounce its policy of excluding homosexuals orforfeit the grand, Beaux-Arts building it has rented from the city for $1 ayear since 1928.
"While we respect the right of the Boy Scouts to prohibit participation inits activities by homosexuals," the solicitor, Romulo Diaz, said last weekin an interview, "we will not subsidize that discrimination by passing onthe costs to the people of Philadelphia."
The city has yet to complete an official assessment of the property. But ithas tentatively placed the market value at $200,000 a year and has invitedthe Boy Scouts to remain in the nearly 100-year-old building as payingtenants.
The confrontation between the city and the nation's third-largest Scoutschapter has been building for four years, with each side blaming the otherfor backing out of previous agreements and for escalating tensions.
more . . . . .
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/opinion/19mon1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
Editorial
Keeping Americans in Their Homes
November 19, 2007
The nation's housing market is in a deep recession, and further declines innew construction, sales and prices are imminent. By the end of next year,falling home values, combined with rising payments on adjustable mortgages,tighter lending conditions and, in all probability, a faltering job market,will have unleashed mass foreclosures - estimated at several hundredthousand to two million - unless something is done to help keep Americans intheir homes.
The Bush administration has no relief plan that is up to the frighteningscale of this problem. And no one in the administration seems to feel muchurgency. Administration officials often lowball the number of imminentforeclosures and question the significance of statistics on the housingdownturn.
In a speech last week extolling the economy's strength, President Bush madejust one reference to the battered housing market, calling it "challenged,"and asserted that we can "deal with it" and other economic uncertainties,"particularly if we keep the taxes low."
Fortunately, some members of Congress do have a plan to help.
Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, recently introduced a billthat would allow bankruptcy courts to modify repayment terms on mortgagesfor primary homes. That could keep an estimated 600,000 troubled borrowersin their homes, paying off their mortgages, albeit over longer terms, atlower interest rates or on lower principal balances.
more . . . . .
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/opinion/19krugman.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Columnist
Republicans and Race
By PAUL KRUGMAN
November 19, 2007
Over the past few weeks there have been a number of commentaries aboutRonald Reagan's legacy, specifically about whether he exploited the whitebacklash against the civil rights movement.
The controversy unfortunately obscures the larger point, which should beundeniable: the central role of this backlash in the rise of the modernconservative movement.
The centrality of race - and, in particular, of the switch of Southernwhites from overwhelming support of Democrats to overwhelming support ofRepublicans - is obvious from voting data.
For example, everyone knows that white men have turned away from theDemocrats over God, guns, national security and so on. But what everyoneknows isn't true once you exclude the South from the picture. As thepolitical scientist Larry Bartels points out, in the 1952 presidentialelection 40 percent of non-Southern white men voted Democratic; in 2004,that figure was virtually unchanged, at 39 percent.
More than 40 years have passed since the Voting Rights Act, which Reagandescribed in 1980 as "humiliating to the South." Yet Southern white votingbehavior remains distinctive. Democrats decisively won the popular vote inlast year's House elections, but Southern whites voted Republican by almosttwo to one.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800945.html
Chávez and the King
By Jackson Diehl
Monday, November 19, 2007; A17
For the past week, the press of the Spanish-speaking world has been abuzzabout a verbal slapdown of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez by King JuanCarlos of Spain. Incensed by Chávez's ceaseless insults and interruptionsduring an Ibero-American summit meeting in Chile, the normally temperateJuan Carlos turned to Latin America's self-styled "Bolivarian" revolutionaryand blurted: "Why don't you shut up?"
The story might have lasted a day, while everyone chuckled over somethingthat, as one Spanish newspaper put it, "should have been said a long timeago." That it has lasted a week is the work of Chávez. He called a newsconference last Monday in which he recounted the history of Spanishcolonialism and compared himself to a persecuted Jesus Christ. He heldanother news conference Wednesday to announce that he was reviewing all tiesbetween Venezuela and Spain. He demanded a royal apology. He even coined hisown phrase: "Mr. King, I will not shut up."
Crude and clownish, si, but also disturbingly effective. Borrowing thetried-and-true tactics of his mentor Fidel Castro, Chávez has found anotherway to energize his political base: by portraying himself as at war withforeign colonialists and imperialists. Even better, he has distracted theattention of the international press -- or at least the fraction of it thatbothers to cover Venezuela -- from the real story in his country at acritical moment.
In 13 days, abetted by intimidation and overt violence that has included thegunning down of student protesters, Chávez will become the presumptivepresident-for-life of a new autocracy, created by a massive revision of hisown constitution. Venezuela will join Cuba as one of two formally"socialist" nations in the Western hemisphere. This "revolution" will beratified by a Dec. 2 referendum that Chávez fully expects to win despitemultiple polls showing that only about a third of Venezuelans support it.Many people will abstain from voting rather than risk the retaliation of aregime that has systematically persecuted those who turned out againstChávez in the past.
Venezuelans are not giving up their freedom without a fight. Tens ofthousands of students have been marching in the streets of Caracas, and thefew independent media outlets that still exist have been trying to combatthe unrelenting propaganda campaign being waged on state-controlledtelevision. Some of Chávez's longtime supporters have defected, includingthe recently retired defense minister, Gen. Raúl Isaías Baduel, who callsthe constitutional rewrite "a coup d'etat." The president's response was topublicly lead a chant about Baduel that promised he "will end up before afiring squad."
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800948.html
A False Choice for Pakistan
By Salman Ahmad
Monday, November 19, 2007; A17
As Pakistan descends into political chaos, much attention has been given totwo leaders competing for power -- the current dictator, Gen. PervezMusharraf, and the media-savvy former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. TheWhite House appears to be backing Musharraf as its best bet in the "war onterror," while much of the world's media and Western liberal elite seeBhutto as a democratic savior for a country mired in Islamic fundamentalism.
Both fail to recognize the core problem plaguing Pakistani society: Withouta strong and independent judiciary, Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state, willforever be at the mercy of dictators and power-hungry politicians. Lack ofoversight and institutional accountability leads to coups, counter-coups andperpetual instability.
As an artist and social activist, I have worked with the governments of bothMusharraf and Bhutto on peace initiatives and socially uplifting themes. Ihave been disillusioned by their lack of commitment to getting real workdone; they appear to spend most of their time consolidating their powerbases.
On several occasions after Sept. 11, 2001, I was invited to Musharraf'shouse in Islamabad, and he even joined me onstage at a concert to helpsupport a united front against extremism. I, like many members of mygeneration, initially believed Musharraf's commitment to introducing an eraof "enlightened moderation" in Pakistan, a nation that was hijacked byreligious fanatics during the American-backed military dictatorship of Gen.Mohammed Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s.
We supported Musharraf because of his promises to fight extremism, bring accountability into politics, open up an independent media and reduce theimmoral gap between Pakistan's rich and poor. But no amount of governmentalfear-mongering can make us look the other way while he imposes emergencyrule, intimidates the media, dismantles the judiciary and muzzles dissent.Without respect for civil institutions, his flawed government is doomed tofail.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800946.html
The Democrats' Iran Dilemma
By Robert D. Novak
Monday, November 19, 2007; A17
Sen. Barack Obama, desperate to cut down front-running Sen. Hillary Clinton,did not take advantage of one opening during Thursday night's Democraticpresidential debate in Las Vegas. Obama pulled his punches regardingClinton's September vote for a resolution that he had earlier said could beused to go to war against Iran. His reticence can be traced to hisco-sponsorship of a similarly hawkish amendment in March.
Obama was softer toward Clinton than he was last month when he called her"reckless" for voting to name the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps aterrorist organization, claiming such a vote would give President Bush apretext to attack Iran. For her part, Clinton did not raise Obama'sinconsistency and was uncharacteristically silent about Iran. The twoleading candidates for the Democratic nomination were muzzled by mutuallyassured destruction, reflecting a Democratic dilemma.
Democrats want to assume a strong anti-terrorist position while deploringU.S. military action against Iran as it develops nuclear weapons. While theprospect of such an attack before Bush leaves office is reviled on the left,no Democrat can be seen as soft on an Islamist Iranian regime whosepresident denies the Holocaust and calls for the destruction of Israel. Thetrick is to condemn both Dick Cheney and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
This balancing act was upset on Oct. 11, when the Manchester (N.H.) UnionLeader published an op-ed by Obama assailing Clinton's vote for theresolution sponsored by Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and independent DemocraticSen. Joseph Lieberman. By designating the Revolutionary Guard a terroristorganization, wrote Obama, "we're still foolishly rattling our sabers" inpassing "this reckless amendment." Obama contended that "the BushAdministration could use the language in Lieberman-Kyl to justify an attackon Iran as part of the ongoing war in Iraq." Obama missed the vote.
Obama energized Washington lawyer Lanny J. Davis, a longtime supporter ofthe Clintons. In an Oct. 16 letter to the New York Times, Davis noted thatObama was one of 68 senators -- including Clinton -- who on March 22co-sponsored Senate Resolution 970, using language similar to Lieberman-Kylin branding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. On his Web site, Davis wrote onOct. 24: "It is a complete mystery why Sen. Obama or his campaign managersthought he could get away with criticizing Sen. Clinton on the Kyl-Liebermanresolution and calling it reckless while knowing about his ownco-sponsorship of S. 970."
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800947.html
The Right Kind of Hand Up
By Douglas J. Besharov
Monday, November 19, 2007; A17
In his Oct. 31 op-ed, " Open-Arms Conservatism," Michael Gerson argued that"the Republican Party is in the midst of an ideological identity crisis."Perhaps because of his experiences within the Bush administration, Gersonfalsely portrayed the choice as between libertarianism (or "anti-governmentconservatism") and the "social teachings of the Jewish and Christiantraditions," arguing that the former ignores the plight of the mostdisadvantaged. But that misunderstands the nature of the true conservative'sreluctance to rush headlong into large, new government programs.
Most Americans want to help their fellow citizens, want an end tounnecessary suffering and racial discrimination, want to see greaterequality of opportunity -- and recognize government's vital role inadvancing these and other social goals.
But compared with liberals -- and here's the point that Gerson did notmake -- conservatives are more sensitive to the limits of government'sability to ameliorate social problems. I say "more sensitive," for intensityis the point. Many liberals are concerned about the size and efficacy ofgovernment programs; they are just less worried about them thanconservatives are, or they may feel more strongly about the need to "dosomething."
With that in mind, consider six principles that underlie a conservativeapproach to social problems.
¿ A preference for limited government. Most conservatives are prepared touse government to further social goals but only in the absence of viableprivate solutions. They expect government programs to be less efficient,less effective, difficult to terminate and more likely to have unforeseen(and possibly harmful) consequences.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800902.html
Polling and Trolling
Instead of blaming McCain-Feingold, Mr. Romney should look in the mirror.
Monday, November 19, 2007; A16
PUSH POLLING -- asking voters questions designed to spread negativeinformation about a candidate rather than to elicit voters' views -- is adespicable technique. It's even more distasteful when used, as it apparentlyhas been in the case of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, tosmear a candidate's faith. Voters in New Hampshire and Iowa have reportedreceiving calls about Mr. Romney's Mormon faith, including queries as towhether callers knew he received U.S. military deferments as a missionary inFrance or that Mormons did not accept African Americans as bishops until the1970s. Mr. Romney is right to denounce this tactic. He is wrong to blame theMcCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law for the development.
"I think the real fault here is McCain-Feingold . . . and the monster thatit is," Mr. Romney told CNBC's Kudlow & Company. "It's just wrong, it'sun-American and it's one reason McCain-Feingold ought to be repealed." Whois behind the push polls and who is funding them, Mr. Romney said, are "hardto know because, under McCain-Feingold, there's no requirement that thesegroups identify who they are or that we know what kind of financing is beingprovided and what kind of organizations they might be affiliated with. It'sreally -- it's really a very unfortunate piece of legislation."
But Arizona Sen. John McCain -- not coincidentally one of Mr. Romney'sopponents in the GOP race -- championed a law requiring disclosure of donorsand spending by the kind of groups about which Mr. Romney complains. And thesubsequent McCain-Feingold measure reflected an effort, if anything, torequire additional disclosure and put additional limitations on such groups.Mr. Romney may argue that an unintended consequence of the law was to divertmoney to shadowy groups, but we don't see him endorsing further changes.
Indeed, it has been opponents of the statute, chief among them NationalRight to Life Committee general counsel -- and key Romney adviser -- JamesBopp Jr., who have fought the law's efforts to crack down on these groups.Mr. Bopp won a Supreme Court victory last year that may well haveeviscerated the ability of the Federal Election Commission to require thatthese groups comply with the contribution limits and reporting requirementsof federal election law. As the FEC considers regulations implementing theSupreme Court ruling, Mr. Bopp has argued for giving outside groups moreleeway to run sham issue ads attacking candidates. Mr. Bopp contends thatthe agency's after-the-fact efforts to crack down on groups such as SwiftBoat Veterans for Truth are no longer valid after the Supreme Court rulingand that labor unions and corporations that run last-minute ads mentioningcandidates shouldn't even have to disclose their funding. Mr. Romney'scomplaint isn't with McCain-Feingold, it's with his own campaign.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111801539.html?hpid=topnews
A Murder Conviction Torn Apart by a Bullet
In a 1995 Maryland Case, Key Testimony and the Science Behind It Have BeenDiscredited
By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 19, 2007; A01
Former Baltimore police sergeant James A. Kulbicki stared silently from thedefense table as the prosecutor held up his off-duty .38-caliber revolverand assured jurors that science proved the gun had been used to killKulbicki's mistress.
"I wonder what it felt like, Mr. Kulbicki, to have taken this gun, pressedit to the skull of that young woman and pulled the trigger, that coldsteel," the prosecutor said during closing arguments.
Prosecutors had linked the weapon to Kulbicki through forensic science.Maryland's top firearms expert said that the gun had been cleaned and thatits bullets were consistent in size with the one that killed the victim. Thestate expert could not match the markings on the bullets to Kulbicki's gun.But an FBI expert took the stand to say that a science that matches bulletsby their lead content had linked the fatal bullet to Kulbicki.
The jurors were convinced, and in 1995 Kulbicki was convicted offirst-degree murder in the death of his 22-year-old girlfriend. He wassentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For a dozen years, Kulbicki sat in state prison, saddled with the image ofthe calculating killer portrayed in the 1996 made-for-TV movie "DoubleJeopardy."
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800501.html?hpid=topnews
Facing a Threat to Farming and Food Supply
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 19, 2007; A06
Fifth in a monthly series
Climate change may be global in its sweep, but not all of the globe'scitizens will share equally in its woes. And nowhere is that truth moreevident, or more worrisome, than in its projected effects on agriculture.
Several recent analyses have concluded that the higher temperatures expectedin coming years -- along with salt seepage into groundwater as sea levelsrise and anticipated increases in flooding and droughts -- willdisproportionately affect agriculture in the planet's lower latitudes, wheremost of the world's poor live.
India, on track to be the world's most populous country, could see a 40percent decline in agricultural productivity by the 2080s as record heatwaves bake its wheat-growing region, placing hundreds of millions of peopleat the brink of chronic hunger.
Africa -- where four out of five people make their living directly from theland -- could see agricultural downturns of 30 percent, forcing farmers toabandon traditional crops in favor of more heat-resistant and flood-tolerantones such as rice. Worse, some African countries, including Senegal andwar-torn Sudan, are on track to suffer what amounts to complete agriculturalcollapse, with productivity declines of more than 50 percent.
Even the emerging agricultural powerhouse of Latin America is poised tosuffer reductions of 20 percent or more, which could return thrivingexporters such as Brazil to the subsistence-oriented nations they were a fewdecades ago.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111801415.html?hpid=moreheadlines
A Troubling Case of Readers' Block
Citing Decline Among Older Kids, NEA Report Warns of Dire Effects
By Bob Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 19, 2007; C01
Americans are reading less and their reading proficiency is declining attroubling rates, according to a report that the National Endowment for theArts will issue today. The trend is particularly strong among older teensand young adults, and if it is not reversed, the NEA report suggests, itwill have a profound negative effect on the nation's economic and civicfuture.
"This is really alarming data," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "Luckily, westill have an opportunity to address it, but if we wait 10, 20 years, Ithink it may be too late."
Titled "To Read or Not to Read," the report is a significant expansion ofthe NEA's widely cited 2004 study, "Reading at Risk." The NEA based thatearlier study exclusively on data from its own arts surveys, and as aresult, that analysis focused mainly on so-called literary reading --novels, stories, plays and poems. This led some critics to downplay itsimplications.
The new report assembles much more data, drawing on large-scale studies doneby other government agencies (such as the Department of Education) and bynon-government organizations. These studies tend to use broader definitionsof reading, said Sunil Iyengar, the NEA's director of research and analysis,with many looking at "all kinds of reading," a category that includesreading done online.
The story the numbers tell, Gioia said, can be summed up in about foursentences:
"We are doing a better job of teaching kids to read in elementary school.But once they enter adolescence, they fall victim to a general culture whichdoes not encourage or reinforce reading. Because these people then readless, they read less well. Because they read less well, they do more poorlyin school, in the job market and in civic life."
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/19/AR2007111900121.html?hpid=sec-world
Bangladesh Cyclone Death Toll Tops 3,100
The Associated Press
Monday, November 19, 2007; 9:10 AM
BARGUNA, Bangladesh -- The death toll from Thursday's cyclone in Bangladeshis now more than 3,100, and officials say that number could reach 10,000once rescuers get to outlying islands. Rescuers are struggling to reachthousands of survivors, and relief items have been slow to reach many.Survivors grieved and buried their loved ones Monday as they waited for aidto arrive.
The death toll from the Thursday cyclone reached 3,113 after reports finallyreached Dhaka from storm-ravaged areas which had been largely cut offbecause of washed-out roads and downed telephone lines, said Lt. Col. MainUllah Chowdhury, a spokesman of the army coordinating the relief and rescuework.
In Galachipa, a fishing village along the coast in Patuakhali district,Dhalan Mridha and his family had ignored the high cyclone alert issued byauthorities.
"Nothing is going to happen. That was our first thought and we went to bed.Just before midnight the winds came like hundreds of demons. Our small hutwas swept away like a piece of paper, and we all ran for shelter," saidMridha, a 45-year-old farm worker, weeping.
On the way to a shelter, Mridha was separated from his wife, mother and twochildren. The next morning he found their bodies stuck in a battered bushalong the coast.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800876.html?hpid=sec-religion
$50M Priest Abuse Deal Reached in Alaska
By MARY PEMBERTON
The Associated Press
Sunday, November 18, 2007; 8:28 PM
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A Roman Catholic religious order has agreed to pay $50million to more than 100 Alaska Natives who allege sexual abuse by Jesuitpriests, a lawyer for the accusers said Sunday.
The settlement with the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus is thelargest one yet against a Catholic religious order, said Anchorage lawyerKen Roosa, who called it "a great day" for the 110 victims.
"These are people who were altar boys and altar servers and altar girls,"Roosa said. "These are people who tried to tell their story and in manyinstances were beaten or told to shut up and told, 'How can you say suchthings about a man of God?'"
The settlement does not require the order to admit fault, Roosa said. Noneof the priests were ever criminally charged.
The settlement announcement is premature because some issues need to befinalized, said the Very Rev. John Whitney, provincial superior of theSociety of Jesus, Oregon Province, which covers Oregon, Washington, Idaho,Montana and Alaska.
more . . . . .
=
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/17/kerry_accepts_swift_boat_challenge/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK
Kerry accepts Swift Boat challenge
November 17, 2007
Senator John F. Kerry, whose 2004 presidential campaign was torpedoed bycritics of his Vietnam War record, said yesterday he has personally acceptedTexas oilman T. Boone Pickens' offer of $1 million to anyone who candisprove even a single charge of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
In a letter to Pickens, who provided $3 million to bankroll the group duringKerry's race against President Bush, the Massachusetts Democrat wrote:"While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, youhave generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing thatcan be proven false."
Kerry, a Navy veteran and former prosecutor, said he was willing to presenthis case directly to Pickens and would donate any proceeds to the ParalyzedVeterans of America. Pickens issued his challenge Nov. 6 in Washington,while serving as chairman of a 40th anniversary gala for American Spectatormagazine, according to two Internet accounts of the gathering and Kerry, whosaid he spoke to people who were there.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
=
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/17/heavy_on_the_congressional_pork/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
Heavy on the congressional pork
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist
November 17, 2007
HILLARY CLINTON talks of "our effort to change America." Barack Obama'srallies are nicknamed "Countdown to Change." John Edwards latest mantra is,"Money is corrupting our democracy. We can either accept it or demandchange." Whatever change these presidential candidates are talking about isa mystery. As they pontificate in Iowa and New Hampshire, their fellowDemocrats in Washington oink-oink away.
A year after regaining control of the Senate and the House by railingagainst "George Bush's war" in Iraq, the Democrats show no sign of changingthe war machine. In the summer, I noted how four of the top five senatorswho earmarked money in their states for defense contracts were notRepublican hawks but liberal and centrist Democrats - Carl Levin ofMichigan, Clinton and Charles Schumer of New York, and Jack Reed of RhodeIsland.
Six of the top 10 senators in defense campaign contributions in the 2006election cycle were Democrats - Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Clinton, ChrisDodd of Connecticut (another presidential candidate), Dianne Feinstein ofCalifornia, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Democrat-turned-independent JoeLieberman of Connecticut. Last summer, Kennedy requested $100 million for aGeneral Electric fighter engine the Air Force said it did not need.
With the possibility that a Democrat will take the White House in 2008, thedefense industry is already throwing its weight behind the Democrats. In the1992 election of Bill Clinton, the industry gave 54 percent of itscontributions to Democrats. But the industry soured on his administration,giving 68 percent to Republicans in 1996 and giving at least 60 percent toRepublican causes up to and including the ill-fated (for Republicans) 2006midterms.
In the 2008 election cycle, the industry is giving 52 percent of itscontributions to Democrats. According to the Center for Responsive Politics,Democrats now make up eight of the top 10 defense recipients. Dodd andClinton are first and third, respectively, ahead of Republican presidentialcandidates John McCain (fifth), Mitt Romney (16th) and Rudy Giuliani (20th).Dodd and Clinton have taken in $171,300 and $125,583, respectively, toMcCain's $118,450, Romney's $82,050, and Giuliani's $69,100.
more . . . . .
=
[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
#####
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/889/v-print/story/312682.html
Motor City named nation's most dangerous
By DAVID N. GOODMAN
Posted on Mon, Nov. 19, 2007
In another blow to the Motor City's tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St.Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a privateresearch group's controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBIcrime statistics.
The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American Societyof Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a statementattacking it as "an irresponsible misuse" of crime data.
The 14th annual "City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America" waspublished by CQ Press, a unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. It is based onthe FBI's Sept. 24 crime statistics report.
The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people based onper-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglaryand auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weightedbased on its seriousness, CQ Press said.
Last year's crime leader, St. Louis, fell to No. 2. Another Michigan city,Flint, ranked third, followed by Oakland Calif.; Camden, N.J.; Birmingham,Ala.; North Charleston, S.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Richmond, Calif.; andCleveland.
more . . . . .
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/v-print/story/313174.html
Puerto Rico in shock over fake doctors
BY SUSAN ANASAGASTI AKUS
Posted on Mon, Nov. 19, 2007
SAN JUAN-- When 14-month-old Yadriel Yadid González showed up at a clinicwith a high fever, the doctor on duty gave him an antibiotic and sent himhome.
Seven hours later the boy was taken to an emergency room where he died ofdengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease.
The doctor who treated the boy, Richard Pietri Sepúlveda, is now one of 113people indicted in an expanding federal probe that has rocked Puerto Rico'smedical community since August, when charges of doctors obtaining theirmedical licenses through fraud or bribery first surfaced.
''We did everything we could as parents. We put our son's life in his [thedoctor's] hands,'' said the boy's father, Carlos Francis González, who alongwith wife Yaira has filed a $6 million lawsuit in the case against Pietriand others.
'I fought with him. I said, `Please do something.' I knew something waswrong with my son,'' González said. ``We thought he was a real doctor so Ilet my guard down.''
more . . . . .
=
NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-china-movie-virus.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
"Lust, Caution" Prompts Virus, Medical Warnings
By REUTERS
November 19, 2007
Filed at 3:33 a.m. ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese anti-virus company has warned against freedownloads of Ang Lee's steamy spy thriller, "Lust, Caution," saying severalhundred sites offering the service were embedded with viruses.
And Chinese doctors have warned moviegoers not to try some of the moreambitious sexual positions featured in the uncut version of the film.
The movie has been a big hit in China, reaping 90 million yuan ($12.12million) in its first two weeks, despite losing seven minutes to thecensors, and has been tipped by some to be the year's biggest box officesuccess.
"People should be wary of Web sites that offer free downloading servicesbecause their personal passwords can be stolen," Li Ting, of RisingInternational Software Co. Ltd., told Reuters.
She said several hundred Web sites promoting "Lust, Caution" were embeddedwith viruses and 15 percent of download links were contaminated.
more . . . . .
=
WashingtonPost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800949_pf.html
Philadelphia Gives Boy Scouts Ultimatum
City Solicitor Tells Branch to Renounce Its Ban on Gays or Lose Rent Subsidy
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 19, 2007; A03
PHILADELPHIA -- This may be the last free Thanksgiving dinner for the BoyScouts of Philadelphia.
Citing a local 1982 "fair practices" law, the city solicitor has given theScouts until Dec. 3 to renounce its policy of excluding homosexuals orforfeit the grand, Beaux-Arts building it has rented from the city for $1 ayear since 1928.
"While we respect the right of the Boy Scouts to prohibit participation inits activities by homosexuals," the solicitor, Romulo Diaz, said last weekin an interview, "we will not subsidize that discrimination by passing onthe costs to the people of Philadelphia."
The city has yet to complete an official assessment of the property. But ithas tentatively placed the market value at $200,000 a year and has invitedthe Boy Scouts to remain in the nearly 100-year-old building as payingtenants.
The confrontation between the city and the nation's third-largest Scoutschapter has been building for four years, with each side blaming the otherfor backing out of previous agreements and for escalating tensions.
more . . . . .
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/opinion/19mon1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
Editorial
Keeping Americans in Their Homes
November 19, 2007
The nation's housing market is in a deep recession, and further declines innew construction, sales and prices are imminent. By the end of next year,falling home values, combined with rising payments on adjustable mortgages,tighter lending conditions and, in all probability, a faltering job market,will have unleashed mass foreclosures - estimated at several hundredthousand to two million - unless something is done to help keep Americans intheir homes.
The Bush administration has no relief plan that is up to the frighteningscale of this problem. And no one in the administration seems to feel muchurgency. Administration officials often lowball the number of imminentforeclosures and question the significance of statistics on the housingdownturn.
In a speech last week extolling the economy's strength, President Bush madejust one reference to the battered housing market, calling it "challenged,"and asserted that we can "deal with it" and other economic uncertainties,"particularly if we keep the taxes low."
Fortunately, some members of Congress do have a plan to help.
Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, recently introduced a billthat would allow bankruptcy courts to modify repayment terms on mortgagesfor primary homes. That could keep an estimated 600,000 troubled borrowersin their homes, paying off their mortgages, albeit over longer terms, atlower interest rates or on lower principal balances.
more . . . . .
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/opinion/19krugman.html?ref=opinion
Op-Ed Columnist
Republicans and Race
By PAUL KRUGMAN
November 19, 2007
Over the past few weeks there have been a number of commentaries aboutRonald Reagan's legacy, specifically about whether he exploited the whitebacklash against the civil rights movement.
The controversy unfortunately obscures the larger point, which should beundeniable: the central role of this backlash in the rise of the modernconservative movement.
The centrality of race - and, in particular, of the switch of Southernwhites from overwhelming support of Democrats to overwhelming support ofRepublicans - is obvious from voting data.
For example, everyone knows that white men have turned away from theDemocrats over God, guns, national security and so on. But what everyoneknows isn't true once you exclude the South from the picture. As thepolitical scientist Larry Bartels points out, in the 1952 presidentialelection 40 percent of non-Southern white men voted Democratic; in 2004,that figure was virtually unchanged, at 39 percent.
More than 40 years have passed since the Voting Rights Act, which Reagandescribed in 1980 as "humiliating to the South." Yet Southern white votingbehavior remains distinctive. Democrats decisively won the popular vote inlast year's House elections, but Southern whites voted Republican by almosttwo to one.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800945.html
Chávez and the King
By Jackson Diehl
Monday, November 19, 2007; A17
For the past week, the press of the Spanish-speaking world has been abuzzabout a verbal slapdown of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez by King JuanCarlos of Spain. Incensed by Chávez's ceaseless insults and interruptionsduring an Ibero-American summit meeting in Chile, the normally temperateJuan Carlos turned to Latin America's self-styled "Bolivarian" revolutionaryand blurted: "Why don't you shut up?"
The story might have lasted a day, while everyone chuckled over somethingthat, as one Spanish newspaper put it, "should have been said a long timeago." That it has lasted a week is the work of Chávez. He called a newsconference last Monday in which he recounted the history of Spanishcolonialism and compared himself to a persecuted Jesus Christ. He heldanother news conference Wednesday to announce that he was reviewing all tiesbetween Venezuela and Spain. He demanded a royal apology. He even coined hisown phrase: "Mr. King, I will not shut up."
Crude and clownish, si, but also disturbingly effective. Borrowing thetried-and-true tactics of his mentor Fidel Castro, Chávez has found anotherway to energize his political base: by portraying himself as at war withforeign colonialists and imperialists. Even better, he has distracted theattention of the international press -- or at least the fraction of it thatbothers to cover Venezuela -- from the real story in his country at acritical moment.
In 13 days, abetted by intimidation and overt violence that has included thegunning down of student protesters, Chávez will become the presumptivepresident-for-life of a new autocracy, created by a massive revision of hisown constitution. Venezuela will join Cuba as one of two formally"socialist" nations in the Western hemisphere. This "revolution" will beratified by a Dec. 2 referendum that Chávez fully expects to win despitemultiple polls showing that only about a third of Venezuelans support it.Many people will abstain from voting rather than risk the retaliation of aregime that has systematically persecuted those who turned out againstChávez in the past.
Venezuelans are not giving up their freedom without a fight. Tens ofthousands of students have been marching in the streets of Caracas, and thefew independent media outlets that still exist have been trying to combatthe unrelenting propaganda campaign being waged on state-controlledtelevision. Some of Chávez's longtime supporters have defected, includingthe recently retired defense minister, Gen. Raúl Isaías Baduel, who callsthe constitutional rewrite "a coup d'etat." The president's response was topublicly lead a chant about Baduel that promised he "will end up before afiring squad."
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800948.html
A False Choice for Pakistan
By Salman Ahmad
Monday, November 19, 2007; A17
As Pakistan descends into political chaos, much attention has been given totwo leaders competing for power -- the current dictator, Gen. PervezMusharraf, and the media-savvy former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. TheWhite House appears to be backing Musharraf as its best bet in the "war onterror," while much of the world's media and Western liberal elite seeBhutto as a democratic savior for a country mired in Islamic fundamentalism.
Both fail to recognize the core problem plaguing Pakistani society: Withouta strong and independent judiciary, Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state, willforever be at the mercy of dictators and power-hungry politicians. Lack ofoversight and institutional accountability leads to coups, counter-coups andperpetual instability.
As an artist and social activist, I have worked with the governments of bothMusharraf and Bhutto on peace initiatives and socially uplifting themes. Ihave been disillusioned by their lack of commitment to getting real workdone; they appear to spend most of their time consolidating their powerbases.
On several occasions after Sept. 11, 2001, I was invited to Musharraf'shouse in Islamabad, and he even joined me onstage at a concert to helpsupport a united front against extremism. I, like many members of mygeneration, initially believed Musharraf's commitment to introducing an eraof "enlightened moderation" in Pakistan, a nation that was hijacked byreligious fanatics during the American-backed military dictatorship of Gen.Mohammed Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s.
We supported Musharraf because of his promises to fight extremism, bring accountability into politics, open up an independent media and reduce theimmoral gap between Pakistan's rich and poor. But no amount of governmentalfear-mongering can make us look the other way while he imposes emergencyrule, intimidates the media, dismantles the judiciary and muzzles dissent.Without respect for civil institutions, his flawed government is doomed tofail.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800946.html
The Democrats' Iran Dilemma
By Robert D. Novak
Monday, November 19, 2007; A17
Sen. Barack Obama, desperate to cut down front-running Sen. Hillary Clinton,did not take advantage of one opening during Thursday night's Democraticpresidential debate in Las Vegas. Obama pulled his punches regardingClinton's September vote for a resolution that he had earlier said could beused to go to war against Iran. His reticence can be traced to hisco-sponsorship of a similarly hawkish amendment in March.
Obama was softer toward Clinton than he was last month when he called her"reckless" for voting to name the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps aterrorist organization, claiming such a vote would give President Bush apretext to attack Iran. For her part, Clinton did not raise Obama'sinconsistency and was uncharacteristically silent about Iran. The twoleading candidates for the Democratic nomination were muzzled by mutuallyassured destruction, reflecting a Democratic dilemma.
Democrats want to assume a strong anti-terrorist position while deploringU.S. military action against Iran as it develops nuclear weapons. While theprospect of such an attack before Bush leaves office is reviled on the left,no Democrat can be seen as soft on an Islamist Iranian regime whosepresident denies the Holocaust and calls for the destruction of Israel. Thetrick is to condemn both Dick Cheney and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
This balancing act was upset on Oct. 11, when the Manchester (N.H.) UnionLeader published an op-ed by Obama assailing Clinton's vote for theresolution sponsored by Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and independent DemocraticSen. Joseph Lieberman. By designating the Revolutionary Guard a terroristorganization, wrote Obama, "we're still foolishly rattling our sabers" inpassing "this reckless amendment." Obama contended that "the BushAdministration could use the language in Lieberman-Kyl to justify an attackon Iran as part of the ongoing war in Iraq." Obama missed the vote.
Obama energized Washington lawyer Lanny J. Davis, a longtime supporter ofthe Clintons. In an Oct. 16 letter to the New York Times, Davis noted thatObama was one of 68 senators -- including Clinton -- who on March 22co-sponsored Senate Resolution 970, using language similar to Lieberman-Kylin branding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. On his Web site, Davis wrote onOct. 24: "It is a complete mystery why Sen. Obama or his campaign managersthought he could get away with criticizing Sen. Clinton on the Kyl-Liebermanresolution and calling it reckless while knowing about his ownco-sponsorship of S. 970."
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800947.html
The Right Kind of Hand Up
By Douglas J. Besharov
Monday, November 19, 2007; A17
In his Oct. 31 op-ed, " Open-Arms Conservatism," Michael Gerson argued that"the Republican Party is in the midst of an ideological identity crisis."Perhaps because of his experiences within the Bush administration, Gersonfalsely portrayed the choice as between libertarianism (or "anti-governmentconservatism") and the "social teachings of the Jewish and Christiantraditions," arguing that the former ignores the plight of the mostdisadvantaged. But that misunderstands the nature of the true conservative'sreluctance to rush headlong into large, new government programs.
Most Americans want to help their fellow citizens, want an end tounnecessary suffering and racial discrimination, want to see greaterequality of opportunity -- and recognize government's vital role inadvancing these and other social goals.
But compared with liberals -- and here's the point that Gerson did notmake -- conservatives are more sensitive to the limits of government'sability to ameliorate social problems. I say "more sensitive," for intensityis the point. Many liberals are concerned about the size and efficacy ofgovernment programs; they are just less worried about them thanconservatives are, or they may feel more strongly about the need to "dosomething."
With that in mind, consider six principles that underlie a conservativeapproach to social problems.
¿ A preference for limited government. Most conservatives are prepared touse government to further social goals but only in the absence of viableprivate solutions. They expect government programs to be less efficient,less effective, difficult to terminate and more likely to have unforeseen(and possibly harmful) consequences.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800902.html
Polling and Trolling
Instead of blaming McCain-Feingold, Mr. Romney should look in the mirror.
Monday, November 19, 2007; A16
PUSH POLLING -- asking voters questions designed to spread negativeinformation about a candidate rather than to elicit voters' views -- is adespicable technique. It's even more distasteful when used, as it apparentlyhas been in the case of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, tosmear a candidate's faith. Voters in New Hampshire and Iowa have reportedreceiving calls about Mr. Romney's Mormon faith, including queries as towhether callers knew he received U.S. military deferments as a missionary inFrance or that Mormons did not accept African Americans as bishops until the1970s. Mr. Romney is right to denounce this tactic. He is wrong to blame theMcCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law for the development.
"I think the real fault here is McCain-Feingold . . . and the monster thatit is," Mr. Romney told CNBC's Kudlow & Company. "It's just wrong, it'sun-American and it's one reason McCain-Feingold ought to be repealed." Whois behind the push polls and who is funding them, Mr. Romney said, are "hardto know because, under McCain-Feingold, there's no requirement that thesegroups identify who they are or that we know what kind of financing is beingprovided and what kind of organizations they might be affiliated with. It'sreally -- it's really a very unfortunate piece of legislation."
But Arizona Sen. John McCain -- not coincidentally one of Mr. Romney'sopponents in the GOP race -- championed a law requiring disclosure of donorsand spending by the kind of groups about which Mr. Romney complains. And thesubsequent McCain-Feingold measure reflected an effort, if anything, torequire additional disclosure and put additional limitations on such groups.Mr. Romney may argue that an unintended consequence of the law was to divertmoney to shadowy groups, but we don't see him endorsing further changes.
Indeed, it has been opponents of the statute, chief among them NationalRight to Life Committee general counsel -- and key Romney adviser -- JamesBopp Jr., who have fought the law's efforts to crack down on these groups.Mr. Bopp won a Supreme Court victory last year that may well haveeviscerated the ability of the Federal Election Commission to require thatthese groups comply with the contribution limits and reporting requirementsof federal election law. As the FEC considers regulations implementing theSupreme Court ruling, Mr. Bopp has argued for giving outside groups moreleeway to run sham issue ads attacking candidates. Mr. Bopp contends thatthe agency's after-the-fact efforts to crack down on groups such as SwiftBoat Veterans for Truth are no longer valid after the Supreme Court rulingand that labor unions and corporations that run last-minute ads mentioningcandidates shouldn't even have to disclose their funding. Mr. Romney'scomplaint isn't with McCain-Feingold, it's with his own campaign.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111801539.html?hpid=topnews
A Murder Conviction Torn Apart by a Bullet
In a 1995 Maryland Case, Key Testimony and the Science Behind It Have BeenDiscredited
By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 19, 2007; A01
Former Baltimore police sergeant James A. Kulbicki stared silently from thedefense table as the prosecutor held up his off-duty .38-caliber revolverand assured jurors that science proved the gun had been used to killKulbicki's mistress.
"I wonder what it felt like, Mr. Kulbicki, to have taken this gun, pressedit to the skull of that young woman and pulled the trigger, that coldsteel," the prosecutor said during closing arguments.
Prosecutors had linked the weapon to Kulbicki through forensic science.Maryland's top firearms expert said that the gun had been cleaned and thatits bullets were consistent in size with the one that killed the victim. Thestate expert could not match the markings on the bullets to Kulbicki's gun.But an FBI expert took the stand to say that a science that matches bulletsby their lead content had linked the fatal bullet to Kulbicki.
The jurors were convinced, and in 1995 Kulbicki was convicted offirst-degree murder in the death of his 22-year-old girlfriend. He wassentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For a dozen years, Kulbicki sat in state prison, saddled with the image ofthe calculating killer portrayed in the 1996 made-for-TV movie "DoubleJeopardy."
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800501.html?hpid=topnews
Facing a Threat to Farming and Food Supply
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 19, 2007; A06
Fifth in a monthly series
Climate change may be global in its sweep, but not all of the globe'scitizens will share equally in its woes. And nowhere is that truth moreevident, or more worrisome, than in its projected effects on agriculture.
Several recent analyses have concluded that the higher temperatures expectedin coming years -- along with salt seepage into groundwater as sea levelsrise and anticipated increases in flooding and droughts -- willdisproportionately affect agriculture in the planet's lower latitudes, wheremost of the world's poor live.
India, on track to be the world's most populous country, could see a 40percent decline in agricultural productivity by the 2080s as record heatwaves bake its wheat-growing region, placing hundreds of millions of peopleat the brink of chronic hunger.
Africa -- where four out of five people make their living directly from theland -- could see agricultural downturns of 30 percent, forcing farmers toabandon traditional crops in favor of more heat-resistant and flood-tolerantones such as rice. Worse, some African countries, including Senegal andwar-torn Sudan, are on track to suffer what amounts to complete agriculturalcollapse, with productivity declines of more than 50 percent.
Even the emerging agricultural powerhouse of Latin America is poised tosuffer reductions of 20 percent or more, which could return thrivingexporters such as Brazil to the subsistence-oriented nations they were a fewdecades ago.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111801415.html?hpid=moreheadlines
A Troubling Case of Readers' Block
Citing Decline Among Older Kids, NEA Report Warns of Dire Effects
By Bob Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 19, 2007; C01
Americans are reading less and their reading proficiency is declining attroubling rates, according to a report that the National Endowment for theArts will issue today. The trend is particularly strong among older teensand young adults, and if it is not reversed, the NEA report suggests, itwill have a profound negative effect on the nation's economic and civicfuture.
"This is really alarming data," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "Luckily, westill have an opportunity to address it, but if we wait 10, 20 years, Ithink it may be too late."
Titled "To Read or Not to Read," the report is a significant expansion ofthe NEA's widely cited 2004 study, "Reading at Risk." The NEA based thatearlier study exclusively on data from its own arts surveys, and as aresult, that analysis focused mainly on so-called literary reading --novels, stories, plays and poems. This led some critics to downplay itsimplications.
The new report assembles much more data, drawing on large-scale studies doneby other government agencies (such as the Department of Education) and bynon-government organizations. These studies tend to use broader definitionsof reading, said Sunil Iyengar, the NEA's director of research and analysis,with many looking at "all kinds of reading," a category that includesreading done online.
The story the numbers tell, Gioia said, can be summed up in about foursentences:
"We are doing a better job of teaching kids to read in elementary school.But once they enter adolescence, they fall victim to a general culture whichdoes not encourage or reinforce reading. Because these people then readless, they read less well. Because they read less well, they do more poorlyin school, in the job market and in civic life."
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/19/AR2007111900121.html?hpid=sec-world
Bangladesh Cyclone Death Toll Tops 3,100
The Associated Press
Monday, November 19, 2007; 9:10 AM
BARGUNA, Bangladesh -- The death toll from Thursday's cyclone in Bangladeshis now more than 3,100, and officials say that number could reach 10,000once rescuers get to outlying islands. Rescuers are struggling to reachthousands of survivors, and relief items have been slow to reach many.Survivors grieved and buried their loved ones Monday as they waited for aidto arrive.
The death toll from the Thursday cyclone reached 3,113 after reports finallyreached Dhaka from storm-ravaged areas which had been largely cut offbecause of washed-out roads and downed telephone lines, said Lt. Col. MainUllah Chowdhury, a spokesman of the army coordinating the relief and rescuework.
In Galachipa, a fishing village along the coast in Patuakhali district,Dhalan Mridha and his family had ignored the high cyclone alert issued byauthorities.
"Nothing is going to happen. That was our first thought and we went to bed.Just before midnight the winds came like hundreds of demons. Our small hutwas swept away like a piece of paper, and we all ran for shelter," saidMridha, a 45-year-old farm worker, weeping.
On the way to a shelter, Mridha was separated from his wife, mother and twochildren. The next morning he found their bodies stuck in a battered bushalong the coast.
more . . . . .
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800876.html?hpid=sec-religion
$50M Priest Abuse Deal Reached in Alaska
By MARY PEMBERTON
The Associated Press
Sunday, November 18, 2007; 8:28 PM
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A Roman Catholic religious order has agreed to pay $50million to more than 100 Alaska Natives who allege sexual abuse by Jesuitpriests, a lawyer for the accusers said Sunday.
The settlement with the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus is thelargest one yet against a Catholic religious order, said Anchorage lawyerKen Roosa, who called it "a great day" for the 110 victims.
"These are people who were altar boys and altar servers and altar girls,"Roosa said. "These are people who tried to tell their story and in manyinstances were beaten or told to shut up and told, 'How can you say suchthings about a man of God?'"
The settlement does not require the order to admit fault, Roosa said. Noneof the priests were ever criminally charged.
The settlement announcement is premature because some issues need to befinalized, said the Very Rev. John Whitney, provincial superior of theSociety of Jesus, Oregon Province, which covers Oregon, Washington, Idaho,Montana and Alaska.
more . . . . .
=
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/17/kerry_accepts_swift_boat_challenge/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK
Kerry accepts Swift Boat challenge
November 17, 2007
Senator John F. Kerry, whose 2004 presidential campaign was torpedoed bycritics of his Vietnam War record, said yesterday he has personally acceptedTexas oilman T. Boone Pickens' offer of $1 million to anyone who candisprove even a single charge of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
In a letter to Pickens, who provided $3 million to bankroll the group duringKerry's race against President Bush, the Massachusetts Democrat wrote:"While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, youhave generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing thatcan be proven false."
Kerry, a Navy veteran and former prosecutor, said he was willing to presenthis case directly to Pickens and would donate any proceeds to the ParalyzedVeterans of America. Pickens issued his challenge Nov. 6 in Washington,while serving as chairman of a 40th anniversary gala for American Spectatormagazine, according to two Internet accounts of the gathering and Kerry, whosaid he spoke to people who were there.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
=
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/17/heavy_on_the_congressional_pork/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
Heavy on the congressional pork
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist
November 17, 2007
HILLARY CLINTON talks of "our effort to change America." Barack Obama'srallies are nicknamed "Countdown to Change." John Edwards latest mantra is,"Money is corrupting our democracy. We can either accept it or demandchange." Whatever change these presidential candidates are talking about isa mystery. As they pontificate in Iowa and New Hampshire, their fellowDemocrats in Washington oink-oink away.
A year after regaining control of the Senate and the House by railingagainst "George Bush's war" in Iraq, the Democrats show no sign of changingthe war machine. In the summer, I noted how four of the top five senatorswho earmarked money in their states for defense contracts were notRepublican hawks but liberal and centrist Democrats - Carl Levin ofMichigan, Clinton and Charles Schumer of New York, and Jack Reed of RhodeIsland.
Six of the top 10 senators in defense campaign contributions in the 2006election cycle were Democrats - Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Clinton, ChrisDodd of Connecticut (another presidential candidate), Dianne Feinstein ofCalifornia, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Democrat-turned-independent JoeLieberman of Connecticut. Last summer, Kennedy requested $100 million for aGeneral Electric fighter engine the Air Force said it did not need.
With the possibility that a Democrat will take the White House in 2008, thedefense industry is already throwing its weight behind the Democrats. In the1992 election of Bill Clinton, the industry gave 54 percent of itscontributions to Democrats. But the industry soured on his administration,giving 68 percent to Republicans in 1996 and giving at least 60 percent toRepublican causes up to and including the ill-fated (for Republicans) 2006midterms.
In the 2008 election cycle, the industry is giving 52 percent of itscontributions to Democrats. According to the Center for Responsive Politics,Democrats now make up eight of the top 10 defense recipients. Dodd andClinton are first and third, respectively, ahead of Republican presidentialcandidates John McCain (fifth), Mitt Romney (16th) and Rudy Giuliani (20th).Dodd and Clinton have taken in $171,300 and $125,583, respectively, toMcCain's $118,450, Romney's $82,050, and Giuliani's $69,100.
more . . . . .
=
[Send your comments about articles to rays.list@comcast.net]
#####
FLORIDA DIGEST November 19, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-flzcal1119sbnov19,0,3066720,print.story
Conference on Gay/Lesbian Tourism, 2 p.m., St. Regis Resort, 1 N. FortLauderdale Beach Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Community Marketing Inc. presentsthis weeklong eighth annual conference for professionals in tourism andhospitality, destination management firms, meeting planners and suppliersand more, to learn about sales and marketing opportunities in gay andlesbian independent travel, meetings and events. Visit
Www.CommunityMarketingInc.com.
E-mail Glen@CommunityMarketingInc.com.
415-437-3800.
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-brmail979sbnov18,0,6198758,print.story
Thanks to Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle for outstanding service
November 18, 2007
Having just met Fort Lauderdale's mayor at the Davie Boulevard grandre-opening, I can understand why he has been elected to serve our city.
I can't imagine a more gracious and charming civic leader. Jim Naugle is oneof the few politicos who seems to know what year it is. It is hard tobelieve he is sometimes painted as a junior league hate-monger.
As a World War II veteran, the mayor straight-away thanked me for my wartimeservice. But it is he who should be thanked.
Harold Flagg
Fort Lauderdale
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbpinesbucks1119sbnov19,0,7368085,print.story
Teachers, staff at Pines charter schools reap $360,000 in bonuses
By Joe Kollin
November 19, 2007
PEMBROKE PINES
It pays to perform outstandingly on tests, the city's charter schools havelearned.
Teachers and staff at the city's four charter elementary schools and twomiddle schools will split $360,150 in state bonus money because theirstudents scored well in the FCAT grading program during the 2006-2007 schoolyear.
The city's 1,700-student high school failed to make an A last year so itdidn't qualify. It earned a B, City Manager Charles F. Dodge said. It hadearned an A the previous year.
City commissioners approved the distribution formula in a unanimous voteOct. 31. It was the seventh consecutive year the state has awarded bonusesto city charter schools.
"They are doing a great job and this is their reward," said CommissionerAngelo Castillo.
Total enrollment at the city's seven charter schools is 5,307 and they havea waiting list of 8,800. The total number of teachers is 298, according toAner Gonzalez, the controller for the schools. Each of three elementarieshas 600 students, the elementary operated in conjunction with Florida StateUniversity has 607, and each of two middle schools has 600 students.
more . . . . .
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/456/v-print/story/313197.html
Jenne's sentence
Posted on Mon, Nov. 19, 2007
Ken Jenne was convicted of tax evasion and fraud. His prison term likelywill include doing laundry, cleanup or food preparation. This should not beconsidered punishment -- these are chores that honest, hardworking people doto provide for their families.
I work and perform these tasks daily. But I don't get paid for doing themand, unfortunately, I haven't time to work out at the gym and play on asoftball team, as Jenne probably will.
What would deter anyone from entering our prison system? Not three meals aday, household duties, recreation and, most important, free healthcare. Thisall looks pretty good to me. Ken Jenne is a liar and a cheat. His punishmentshould fit his crimes.
S. WARREN, Coral Springs
Ken Jenne was in a position of public trust and he failed. He should havegotten the maximum penalty instead of one year and a day. Such people onlyfeel remorse after they are caught.
MODESTO OLIVERA, Sunrise
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/v-print/story/313173.html
Miami child abuse cases mishandled, state finds
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
Posted on Mon, Nov. 19, 2007
A 2-year-old girl is beaten so savagely that her skull is fractured from earto ear.
A 15-year-old girl is repeatedly raped by the boyfriend of her mother, whorefuses to believe her.
A psychotic, suicidal 14-year-old boy bounces between a juvenile lockup anda mental hospital after his only caregiver, an aunt, abandons him.
All three Miami-area children, and scores of others, had been reported asvictims of abuse, neglect or abandonment earlier this year to Florida childwelfare caseworkers -- who closed their cases days later without helpingthem, in some instances without ever laying eyes on them.
A state report into the children's cases obtained by The Miami Heraldconcludes there was a ''widespread'' practice among Miami child-abusecaseworkers of closing investigations prematurely, sometimes without evenvisiting suspected victims of abuse or neglect.
more . . . . .
=
St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/18/Opinion/Governor_may_have_ove.shtml
Governor may have overplayed his hand
A Times Editorial
Published November 18, 2007
Given the open hostility in the Legislature toward Indian gaming, Gov.Charlie Crist had reason to want to avoid a showdown that could leaveFlorida empty handed. But the compact he has now signed with the SeminoleTribe allows for games that are otherwise illegal, and the governor cannotmake law. While there are differing legal opinions, it seems this agreementcould require the approval of the Legislature.
While we continue to oppose the expansion of gambling, the deal itself hassome merit. Crist tried to avoid the mistake made by the late Gov. LawtonChiles, who refused to negotiate only to see the Seminoles build casinoswithout state oversight or revenue sharing. So he agreed to let the Tribeupgrade to high-stakes slot machines, which are now allowed in parimutuelfacilities in Broward and Miami-Dade after local voters approve. Crist alsogranted some exclusivity for payments to the state that would begin at amodest $100-million the first year but are tied to gaming revenues and couldrise toward $500-million in the future. Equally important, the compactprovides a strong disincentive for any future expansion of gambling: Thetribe no longer would be required to share its revenues with the state ifgambling beyond the scope of this agreement is permitted.
The problem is that the governor may have exceeded his authority inapproving the agreement with the Legislature's consent. State law, writtenin the wake of a narrowly approved 2004 constitutional amendment, allowsonly for high-stakes slots. All other forms of so-called Class III casinogambling, including the blackjack and baccarat games Crist approvedexclusively for the seven Seminole Indian facilities, are forbidden.
The governor's chief of staff says that federal law governing the sovereignIndian lands requires only that the U.S. Interior secretary and governorapprove gaming compacts. But that's misleading at best. The Indian GamingRegulatory Act provision for tribal compacts refers only to the approval ofthe "state" and never uses the word "governor." In other words, the stategets to decide who issues final approval and nothing in current law or theFlorida Constitution appears to specifically grant Crist such authority.
The governor walked an admittedly fine line as he sought to limit Indiangaming without losing the opportunity for the state to regulate and profitfrom it. As he tried to bargain in good faith, he also faced public attacksfrom legislators who promised to fight any agreement. Parimutuel operatorswho had persuaded voters to let them have high-stakes slot machines inBroward were livid at the prospect of what they viewed as unfaircompetition.
In the end, Crist dropped his "preference" to work with the Legislature. Hemay have negotiated an agreement with the Seminoles that could result inneither a dramatic expansion in gambling nor extraordinary profit for thestate. But he most certainly threw the issue into the courts by actingalone.
=
Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/11/19/s1a_foster1119.html
Views split on foster-care drop
By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 19, 2007
After a push to return children to their birth parents, local leaders havereduced the number of children in Palm Beach County foster care to thelowest level in at least six years.
The number of children living in foster care or with relatives after reportsthat their parents abused or neglected them dropped from 1,503 in June toless than 1,200 this month. Between August and October alone, 123 childrenwent home to their birth parents. Others were adopted or left in thepermanent custody of relatives.
For the first time in nearly two years, workloads are more manageable,foster homes have room, and the county's foster care agency is pulling outof a budget crisis caused by a glut in the number of children.
But some fear that children are being left in abusive and dangerous homes.
more . . . . .
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/310602.html
Seminole Tribes' gain is Florida's loss
Posted on Sun, Nov. 18, 2007
The only thing Gov. Charlie Crist got right about the gambling deal hesigned with the Seminole Tribe last week was calling the agreement''historic.'' But the deal is ''historic'' for all the wrong reasons. Thecompact is a terrible deal, and a major expansion of gambling in Florida.
With this deal, Gov. Crist has reversed the decisions that Florida votershave made at the ballot on at least four occasions since the 1980s. Votershave consistently said No to serious, statewide gambling. Gov. Crist saidYes. He authorized Las Vegas-style gambling, including card games such asbaccarat and blackjack, at seven Seminole facilities across Florida.
Pressure from Interior
Gov. Crist said he made the deal on behalf of Florida residents, ensuringthat they get a cut of the profits to the tune of at least $100 million ayear for 25 years. He said he felt compelled to make a deal because ofpressure from the federal Interior Department to meet a Nov. 15 deadline andbecause federal regulations that say the Tribe has to get something of valuefrom the deal. Neither reason, as we see it, justifies the compact.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said he didn't believe the InteriorDepartment could enforce the deadline. And in a recent opinion, he wrotethat Florida had to give the Tribe something of value, but not necessarilymore than what other pari-mutuels and other gambling concerns have. Mr.McCollum has it right.
more . . . . .
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-flzcal1119sbnov19,0,3066720,print.story
Conference on Gay/Lesbian Tourism, 2 p.m., St. Regis Resort, 1 N. FortLauderdale Beach Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Community Marketing Inc. presentsthis weeklong eighth annual conference for professionals in tourism andhospitality, destination management firms, meeting planners and suppliersand more, to learn about sales and marketing opportunities in gay andlesbian independent travel, meetings and events. Visit
Www.CommunityMarketingInc.com.
E-mail Glen@CommunityMarketingInc.com.
415-437-3800.
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-brmail979sbnov18,0,6198758,print.story
Thanks to Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle for outstanding service
November 18, 2007
Having just met Fort Lauderdale's mayor at the Davie Boulevard grandre-opening, I can understand why he has been elected to serve our city.
I can't imagine a more gracious and charming civic leader. Jim Naugle is oneof the few politicos who seems to know what year it is. It is hard tobelieve he is sometimes painted as a junior league hate-monger.
As a World War II veteran, the mayor straight-away thanked me for my wartimeservice. But it is he who should be thanked.
Harold Flagg
Fort Lauderdale
=
Sun-Sentinel.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbpinesbucks1119sbnov19,0,7368085,print.story
Teachers, staff at Pines charter schools reap $360,000 in bonuses
By Joe Kollin
November 19, 2007
PEMBROKE PINES
It pays to perform outstandingly on tests, the city's charter schools havelearned.
Teachers and staff at the city's four charter elementary schools and twomiddle schools will split $360,150 in state bonus money because theirstudents scored well in the FCAT grading program during the 2006-2007 schoolyear.
The city's 1,700-student high school failed to make an A last year so itdidn't qualify. It earned a B, City Manager Charles F. Dodge said. It hadearned an A the previous year.
City commissioners approved the distribution formula in a unanimous voteOct. 31. It was the seventh consecutive year the state has awarded bonusesto city charter schools.
"They are doing a great job and this is their reward," said CommissionerAngelo Castillo.
Total enrollment at the city's seven charter schools is 5,307 and they havea waiting list of 8,800. The total number of teachers is 298, according toAner Gonzalez, the controller for the schools. Each of three elementarieshas 600 students, the elementary operated in conjunction with Florida StateUniversity has 607, and each of two middle schools has 600 students.
more . . . . .
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/456/v-print/story/313197.html
Jenne's sentence
Posted on Mon, Nov. 19, 2007
Ken Jenne was convicted of tax evasion and fraud. His prison term likelywill include doing laundry, cleanup or food preparation. This should not beconsidered punishment -- these are chores that honest, hardworking people doto provide for their families.
I work and perform these tasks daily. But I don't get paid for doing themand, unfortunately, I haven't time to work out at the gym and play on asoftball team, as Jenne probably will.
What would deter anyone from entering our prison system? Not three meals aday, household duties, recreation and, most important, free healthcare. Thisall looks pretty good to me. Ken Jenne is a liar and a cheat. His punishmentshould fit his crimes.
S. WARREN, Coral Springs
Ken Jenne was in a position of public trust and he failed. He should havegotten the maximum penalty instead of one year and a day. Such people onlyfeel remorse after they are caught.
MODESTO OLIVERA, Sunrise
=
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/v-print/story/313173.html
Miami child abuse cases mishandled, state finds
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
Posted on Mon, Nov. 19, 2007
A 2-year-old girl is beaten so savagely that her skull is fractured from earto ear.
A 15-year-old girl is repeatedly raped by the boyfriend of her mother, whorefuses to believe her.
A psychotic, suicidal 14-year-old boy bounces between a juvenile lockup anda mental hospital after his only caregiver, an aunt, abandons him.
All three Miami-area children, and scores of others, had been reported asvictims of abuse, neglect or abandonment earlier this year to Florida childwelfare caseworkers -- who closed their cases days later without helpingthem, in some instances without ever laying eyes on them.
A state report into the children's cases obtained by The Miami Heraldconcludes there was a ''widespread'' practice among Miami child-abusecaseworkers of closing investigations prematurely, sometimes without evenvisiting suspected victims of abuse or neglect.
more . . . . .
=
St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/18/Opinion/Governor_may_have_ove.shtml
Governor may have overplayed his hand
A Times Editorial
Published November 18, 2007
Given the open hostility in the Legislature toward Indian gaming, Gov.Charlie Crist had reason to want to avoid a showdown that could leaveFlorida empty handed. But the compact he has now signed with the SeminoleTribe allows for games that are otherwise illegal, and the governor cannotmake law. While there are differing legal opinions, it seems this agreementcould require the approval of the Legislature.
While we continue to oppose the expansion of gambling, the deal itself hassome merit. Crist tried to avoid the mistake made by the late Gov. LawtonChiles, who refused to negotiate only to see the Seminoles build casinoswithout state oversight or revenue sharing. So he agreed to let the Tribeupgrade to high-stakes slot machines, which are now allowed in parimutuelfacilities in Broward and Miami-Dade after local voters approve. Crist alsogranted some exclusivity for payments to the state that would begin at amodest $100-million the first year but are tied to gaming revenues and couldrise toward $500-million in the future. Equally important, the compactprovides a strong disincentive for any future expansion of gambling: Thetribe no longer would be required to share its revenues with the state ifgambling beyond the scope of this agreement is permitted.
The problem is that the governor may have exceeded his authority inapproving the agreement with the Legislature's consent. State law, writtenin the wake of a narrowly approved 2004 constitutional amendment, allowsonly for high-stakes slots. All other forms of so-called Class III casinogambling, including the blackjack and baccarat games Crist approvedexclusively for the seven Seminole Indian facilities, are forbidden.
The governor's chief of staff says that federal law governing the sovereignIndian lands requires only that the U.S. Interior secretary and governorapprove gaming compacts. But that's misleading at best. The Indian GamingRegulatory Act provision for tribal compacts refers only to the approval ofthe "state" and never uses the word "governor." In other words, the stategets to decide who issues final approval and nothing in current law or theFlorida Constitution appears to specifically grant Crist such authority.
The governor walked an admittedly fine line as he sought to limit Indiangaming without losing the opportunity for the state to regulate and profitfrom it. As he tried to bargain in good faith, he also faced public attacksfrom legislators who promised to fight any agreement. Parimutuel operatorswho had persuaded voters to let them have high-stakes slot machines inBroward were livid at the prospect of what they viewed as unfaircompetition.
In the end, Crist dropped his "preference" to work with the Legislature. Hemay have negotiated an agreement with the Seminoles that could result inneither a dramatic expansion in gambling nor extraordinary profit for thestate. But he most certainly threw the issue into the courts by actingalone.
=
Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/11/19/s1a_foster1119.html
Views split on foster-care drop
By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 19, 2007
After a push to return children to their birth parents, local leaders havereduced the number of children in Palm Beach County foster care to thelowest level in at least six years.
The number of children living in foster care or with relatives after reportsthat their parents abused or neglected them dropped from 1,503 in June toless than 1,200 this month. Between August and October alone, 123 childrenwent home to their birth parents. Others were adopted or left in thepermanent custody of relatives.
For the first time in nearly two years, workloads are more manageable,foster homes have room, and the county's foster care agency is pulling outof a budget crisis caused by a glut in the number of children.
But some fear that children are being left in abusive and dangerous homes.
more . . . . .
=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/310602.html
Seminole Tribes' gain is Florida's loss
Posted on Sun, Nov. 18, 2007
The only thing Gov. Charlie Crist got right about the gambling deal hesigned with the Seminole Tribe last week was calling the agreement''historic.'' But the deal is ''historic'' for all the wrong reasons. Thecompact is a terrible deal, and a major expansion of gambling in Florida.
With this deal, Gov. Crist has reversed the decisions that Florida votershave made at the ballot on at least four occasions since the 1980s. Votershave consistently said No to serious, statewide gambling. Gov. Crist saidYes. He authorized Las Vegas-style gambling, including card games such asbaccarat and blackjack, at seven Seminole facilities across Florida.
Pressure from Interior
Gov. Crist said he made the deal on behalf of Florida residents, ensuringthat they get a cut of the profits to the tune of at least $100 million ayear for 25 years. He said he felt compelled to make a deal because ofpressure from the federal Interior Department to meet a Nov. 15 deadline andbecause federal regulations that say the Tribe has to get something of valuefrom the deal. Neither reason, as we see it, justifies the compact.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said he didn't believe the InteriorDepartment could enforce the deadline. And in a recent opinion, he wrotethat Florida had to give the Tribe something of value, but not necessarilymore than what other pari-mutuels and other gambling concerns have. Mr.McCollum has it right.
more . . . . .
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)